Plane Crash
by Darcy18
Summary: Mello, Matt and Near go on a plane to travel to L somewhere in the world. L wanted them to help him with one of his cases to let them get some experience with his work. Then something goes horribly wrong. Something in the plane explodes and everyone is in panic. The three boys manage to escape on time... but now they have to survive in the middle of nowhere.
1. Chapter 1: Just jump

**Chapter 1: Just jump**

Mello let out a frustrated sigh. It was already three hours since they boarded the plane and he couldn't wait until they landed. He turned his head to the left to look through the small window. Only the blue of the ocean was seen, no land in sight yet. He saw Near next to the window and gave the smaller boy a hateful glare before he turned his head away.

Matt sat beside him, Near on the left of Matt by the window and he sat on the side of the path between the middle row of seats. There were three rows with each three seats next to each other. It wasn't possible for them to use one of L's private jets for one reason or another unfortunately... so they were stuck here between other loud talking people.

The reason why they were on a plane was their mentor and possible future. L had asked for their presence to help him with one of his smaller cases. This was the first time such thing happened. L wanted them to learn more about his job as detective from first-hand.

 _I can't wait to get out of this plane and show L what I can do! There's no way he won't see that I'm more skilled and better for his title than that albino sheep._

'Matt, I'm bored,' he complained. When he didn't get an immediately answer he poked his friend in his shoulder. 'Maaatt!'

Matt grumbled. 'And what am I supposed to do about that? Just eat some chocolate or something.' He was very busy with pushing buttons on his Gameboy, trying to win one of his many games.

'But I already ate all of them! We're already for three hours on this plane!' Mello whined. That was another reason he couldn't wait until they landed... he had ran out of his precious chocolate bars.

'Well then you'll have to figure something out to do until we arrive on the ground again,' Matt shrugged and went on with his game.

'You can play with one of my robots if you like,' Near's voice joined in.

Mello shot another glare at the boy. 'I'd rather die of boredom.'

Suddenly the plane started to shake more than it should do. Mello grabbed the arms of his seat until his knuckles of his hands turned white. Matt forgot his game for a moment and gave out a high squeal. Near stayed the calm robot he was as always.  
Finally the shaking stopped and Mello took a deep breathe. The voice of the pilot came out of one of the intercoms on the plane and let the passengers know it was just some turbulence. There was no reason to worry.

Matt sighed relieved and glanced at Mello. 'Please don't say the words "I rather die" while we're on the plane. It gives bad luck.'

Mello grinned. 'You're afraid for flying airplanes?'

'… Maybe a little bit...'

Mello let out a short laugh and Matt returned to his game. Matt was his best friend for years now since they met each other at Wammy House and they were put together as roommates. The redhead was not as brave as himself, but he stuck with him anyway.

Just when everything seemed calm again and he sat relaxed in his seat again everything of that changed in an instant when an enormous BANG sounded through the plane. The noise sounded like something big exploded. The plane started to shake even more than it did before. Screams were heard when people panicked from the sound.

 _'One of the motors exploded! We are heading for the ground in less than ten minutes! We're gonna try to make an emergency landing!'_ the voice of the pilot sounded. Mello could hear the pilot tried to sound calm, but he heard the panic in his voice.

'WHAT?!' Matt shrieked, game now totally forgotten. 'Did he say one of the motors _exploded_?!'

Mello felt his heart go faster from fear. 'We are above the ocean! How are we supposed to land?'

'We're not above the ocean anymore, Mello' Near said as he pointed at the window.

Mello and Matt looked through the window and saw a blur of green far below. It was some kind of forest.

Matt started hyperventilating. 'There are so many trees! How do they want to do an emergency landing there?!'

The plane jolted and shook from the impact from the explosion. The nose of the plane started to go down and so did the direction of the entire thing. They were heading to the ground in a breakneck speed. The people who were unlucky and didn't had their safety belt on slammed in the seat in front of them. Others who were even more unluckier flew across all the seats or tumbled down the path between the seats and slammed into the wall in the front. Baggage of the people in the plane and other stuff flew to the front too. People were now in too much panic to stay calm as they knew they were going to die in less than ten minutes.

 _I'm not going to let it end like this!_

Mello looked desperately around him in hope for something that could save them. Adrenaline pumped through his body as he searched for a way to escape their death.

'We have to do something! What can we do?' Near said in a louder voice than normal to make himself understandable above the screams of other passengers.

Mello's eyes widened when he saw something that could work for them to get out alive. 'There! That's what we're going to do!'

He unfastened his seat belt and crawled slowly to the objects that he had seen. He heard Matt yelling at him what the hell he was going to do, but he ignored it and grabbed the two backpack like objects. When he had them in a tight grip so they wouldn't roll further across the plane, he went back to Matt and Near.

Near watched the two backpack things and understood what Mello's plan was. 'They're parachutes!'

'What!' Matt shrieked. 'You want us to jump out of this plane, are you crazy?!'

Mello pushed one of the parachutes in Matt's hands and snapped back: 'This is no time to play the coward! Just put that thing on, it's the only option I can think of right now.'

Matt was silenced by his words and did what he was commanded. Mello did the second parachutes on and made sure it was safely fastened on his back with straps around his chest. Near noticed he was the only one without a parachute, but he didn't say anything.

When they both were done fastening the parachutes Mello started to get out their row of seats. The plane was slanting and he had to climb slightly up to go to the back of the plane. He used the other seats to climb faster. Matt and Near followed his example and were right behind him.

Finally they reached the back and Mello looked for a short moment at the door that had to open. He saw a red emergency handle that would open the door. He broke the glass and pulled the handle down. The door made a hissing sound, but stayed closed.

He took a step back and turned to Matt and Near. 'Push yourself flat against the wall!'

Then he kicked the door open and pushed himself against the wall himself before he could get sucked up by the wind.

'We have to jump now! Matt you go first!' he said.

Matt looked scared to death. 'I can't!'

Mello growled. 'Just jump, damnit!'

Without any hesitation he gave Matt a hard push so he had no other choice than jump. And he did… with a very manly shriek.

Mello glanced at Near and saw the sheep looking quite uncertain at him.

 _He probably thinks I'm gonna push him out the plane without a parachute… Hmm… it's an idea, but no. I don't want somebody to die with the blood on my hands… even if it's Near._

Without any more explanation he draped his arms around Near and he didn't try to think too much about it. It felt like _hugging_ him.

'… What are you going to do?' Finally some fear seeped through the stoic mask.

'Just hold on tight and whatever happens don't let go,' he replied.

Mello felt Near grabbing onto him with a death grip and he buried his face in his chest so he wouldn't have to look. Mello knew he had to jump _now_ or it was too late and they would be too close to the ground to jump.

He took a deep breath and pushed himself away from the wall. He jumped through the open door and saw the forest far below him. When he thought it was the right time he pulled a cord and the parachute opened. Mello searched for a certain redhead below him and was relieved to see another parachute beneath him. Matt had managed to open it.

 _I hope the landing will be okay._


	2. Chapter 2: Follow the smoke

**I have no idea how long this story is going to be… I'll see it when my ideas run out xD  
**

 **Do any of you have any ideas of situations you want to see Mello, Near and Matt in when they are in the forest? I have no idea myself in which part of the world they are exactly… a fictional like forest most likely, but I'd like to think it looks a bit like Alaska :)**

 **By the way: /\/\/\/\ means time skip.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Follow the smoke**

It seemed like forever, but finally Mello reached the ground. He had managed to land between the big trees so his wouldn't get stuck in one with his parachute.  
Although they were safely on the ground again, Near still wouldn't let go and hugged Mello tightly with his face hidden in his chest.

'Near, you can let go of me now,' Mello grumbled.

The pale boy slowly removed his arms and he blinked a few times. 'It actually worked? We're safe on the ground?'

'No, we're dead and this is certainly hell 'cause I still see you!' Mello sneered. 'Of course, we're safe on the ground!'

'WHAT DO YOU MEAN SAFE ON THE GROUND?!' a yell came from somewhere.

Mello recognized Matt's voice and looked for his friend that had landed first.

'Get me down! I'm up here!'

Mello and Near raised their heads only to see Matt's red hair very clearly against the green of the tree… he apparently got stuck in because of his parachute.

He sighed and started climbing up the tree where Matt was in to get him down.

 _It's a good thing I always climbed the trees back at Wammy's when I hid from Roger…_

'Matt, how the hell did you manage to get stuck in here?' He had finally reached his friend.

'It's not like I jump, no wait, get _pushed_ out of a plane every day and have to make my way down with a parachute,' Matt said slightly irritated.

'Well I haven't done it before too, but I still landed perfectly.'

Mello snickered when he heard Matt grumble something under his breath and continued to help him with unfastening the backpack part of the parachute. When he was freed of the thing Mello helped him to get a good grip on the tree so he could climb down.

'Thanks,' Matt muttered when his feet reached the ground safely. Mello knew helping him get out the tree wasn't the only reason he said thank you. The redhead didn't liked getting pushed out of the plane, but it did safe them.

He began to climb down to the ground when had an idea. He stopped climbing down and went up higher in the tree instead.

'Hey, what are you doing?' Matt asked. 'The ground is the other way, you know!'

'I'm gonna try to climb to the top of the tree. Maybe I can see a small village from there,' he answered and he climbed further without more explanation.

The trees here were certainly larger and much higher than the trees at Wammy House, but his condition was good so he managed to reach the top without using all of his energy. That was good news, because he had to make his way down to the ground after this too.

When he finally reached the top he had a far overview over the forest that seemed to go as far as he could see. Mello turned his view around to search for anything or anyone that they could go to for help. There were no such things, but he saw from very very far away a big smoke cloud. The smoke had an almost black colour and was obviously from a large fire that still burned. The only thing what could cause a fire that big could only be the plane that had crashed down. Above the smoke cloud stood the sun. Mello could see the sun was already going down in a sunset so that would mean they had to walk to the west.

 _If there are any people out there that could help us it's where the plane is. People will go and look what happened when they saw a smoke cloud that big. Otherwise people of the airline company they flew with would pretty much know where the plane crashed, right?_

Satisfied with his plan he started to make his way down. Matt and Near waited for him and wanted to ask him about what he saw, but they waited until he reached the ground before letting the curiosity win.

'And?' Matt asked curiously. 'Did you see something?'

Mello nodded. 'I saw an enormous some cloud to the west. It just has to be the plane we jumped out. If we walk over there it's most likely to run into people who could help us as I couldn't see any other sign of life for as far I could look.

'How far away was the smoke cloud you saw?' Near asked quietly.

Mello wanted to say something insulting back as he always did to the albino boy, but he gave a normal answer instead. 'It was pretty far away, but it's our only option for now.'

Near simply nodded that he understood.

 _I'm stuck with him anyway for some time. I'll have to talk to the little twit if I like it or not._

'Oh man…' Matt whined. 'We really have to walk that far?'

Mello punched his friend. 'Quit your whining. Do you want to return home to your games or not?'

This seemed to get the attention of the redheaded gamer as his eyes widened in realisation that he had no gaming device whatsoever with him. 'Let's go then and get the fuck outta here!'

Matt started walking in some direction, but Near stopped him. 'Matt, it would be better if we started walking tomorrow. The sun is already going down so it will be dark soon and we haven't got any light source to see our way through the forest.' He turned to Mello. 'Right?'

He actually didn't want to admit it, but Near was right. It would be better to start when the sun came up again.

'… You're right. We'll start walking tomorrow.'

/\/\/\/\

 _I have no idea in which part of the world we are now, but it's freezing at night apparently!_

The sun went down not long after they decided to stay where they were. They hadn't made a fire and only made a bed of fallen leaves. When the sun disappeared it got colder every minute until it was shivering cold. They all had only their jackets on with a simple shirt so their clothes didn't provide much warmth.

'T-this suck-ks,' Mello shivered. 'Where d-did the warmt-th from earlier g-go?'

'Y-you know…' Matt began. 'We could cuddle t-together… that helps I t-think. I think I s-saw that on TV once.'

Mello's eyes narrowed when he thought about the idea of cuddling together… including Near.

'N-no, I'll r-rather freeze!'

'I'm f-fine with it,' Near said.

So without any more being said Matt and Near went to lay next to each other cuddled up while he lay shivering on his own.

Matt shot him a glance. 'Mels, just d-deal with it. You jumped out of a plane today. I think you could do this to k-keep warm too.'

Matt stuttered already noticeably less and Near had his eyes closed as he tried to sleep now he was much warmer and less shivering.

It took him a moment and one big shiver to crawl over to Matt's side and forget his stubbornness.

 _At least I'm lying next to Matt… It could be worse…_

And so after a while he fell asleep too.

* * *

 **I noticed I write my stories in a certain way. I take a character (like Mello) and write what he sees and does in third POV with in between his thoughts in first POV. I wonder if this way of writing is easy to read?**


	3. Chapter 3: Scattered baggage

**Chapter 3: S** **cattered baggage**

When Mello woke up the next morning because the first sunbeams shone through the many trees he didn't feel like getting up. He felt groggily, his back hurt from the hard ground he slept on and for some reason he didn't felt cold at all.

 _Matt's probably still sleeping too..._

He slowly opened an eye and when he saw who was really lying against him his eyes shot open, now fully awake. He jerked away from the small boy with who he had cuddled up with. Confused and irritated he watched the other wake up from his sudden movement.

 _Why was I lying next to Near? Where is Matt?_

He heard Matt give a short laugh behind him and he turned around to find Matt standing next to him, already awake.

'Good morning, sunshine,' he said amused.

Mello gave him an annoyed glare. 'Why are you up already?'

'I woke up early and couldn't sleep anymore, so I stood up and walked around a bit to get it warm.' He grinned as he continued. 'Not much longer after I stood up you two started to cuddle up together. Probably seeking each others warmth unconsciously in your sleep.'

Mello flushed red from anger and embarrassment. 'I did no such thing!'

Matt rolled his eyes. 'Yeah, sure.' Grin still on his face.

Mello was just thinking about punching that grin off his face when Near interrupted those thoughts.

'I think we should start walking to the west. The sun is already up,' Near said.

'… Fine,' Mello muttered, still moody by the way he woke up. 'Let's move!'

* * *

'I'm hungry...'

'I know Matt, you said that many times since the last hour.'

Matt sighed while they continued walking through the forest. They were already walking for at least half a day. Well... maybe not that long, but it sure felt like it!  
The last time they had eaten something was back on the plane. They had missed diner yesterday and breakfast this morning. He began to feel thirsty too.  
The only thing that became better was the temperature. When the sun appeared in the sky it felt much warmer, like a warm summer day in England.

'We have to get something to eat at some point,' he said.

'Maybe we could find something edible in the forest like berries or herbs,' Near suggested.

Mello rolled his eyes. 'Perfect plan. Living on berries and herbs, if we can find them that is. We need meat too not only stuff that rabbits eat.'

'… But we could find a rabbit for meat,' Near said.

Mello and Matt turned as one person to look at the small boy with wide eyes.

'You want to kill some bunnies?!' Matt said incredulously.

Mello snorted in disbelief. 'And who's gonna catch and kill them? _You_?'

'No, I'm not. So if you two won't either it will be _stuff that rabbits eat_ for us.'

Mello and Near started their bickering, mostly Mello, and Matt was left alone with his empty stomach. He didn't feel like listening to those two and walked ahead of them.

 _I hope someone finds us quickly before they kill each other._

Matt didn't watch where he put his feet down and suddenly tripped over something solid. He let out a shriek as he lost his balance and fell flat on the ground.

Mello and Near stopped their bickering and ran immediately to the fallen Matt.

'What happened?' Mello asked.

Matt groaned painfully and rolled himself on his back to look what caused him to trip. His eyes widened at what he saw in front of him. On the ground lay a suitcase. It was brownish colored so it was hard to see it against the earth of the ground.

'I tripped over a... a suitcase,' he said surprised.

The other two had reached Matt and stared dumbfounded at the suitcase that lay at their feet.

Mello blinked. 'What on earth is a suitcase doing in the middle of a forest?'

They thought about it and stared silently at the object.

Near broke the silence first. 'Maybe it fell out the plane? We are walking in the direction where it crashed.'

'That could be,' Matt replied. 'We don't know exactly where the explosion occurred in the plane. The blast could be big enough to destroy the motors and blow a hole in the baggage compartment causing some of it to fall down.'

'Who cares! Just open it!' Mello said impatiently and he began to try to pry open the suitcase.

There was a number lock holding it closed, but if Mello wanted something it almost always went the way he wanted. So with some force and a good kick from Mello the suitcase opened.

The contents were standard travel stuff. Clothes, toothbrush and more clothes. Looking at the clothes Matt figured out this suitcase had to be of a businessman or something like that. Nothing was interesting for them and the clothes were too big.

Mello was clearly disappointed. 'Well all that effort to get it open for nothing.'

Matt was also sad... _I hoped there was maybe some edible in it..._

'If this suitcase fell out the plane there could be more scattered around here,' Near said. 'We have to keep looking for more lost baggage.'

He didn't have to repeat himself because before he finished his sentence Mello and Matt were already busy with searching for more. And Near was right. Here and there they found more suitcases, backpacks and other bags. Most of them had stuff like clothes in them, but some actually fit so they had some spare clothes if needed. There were also a few with small first aid boxes with stuff like bandages and plasters.  
What made them very happy was finding that some of the bags had food or drinks, mostly snacks or candy, but it was edible! So they emptied each a backpack and filled their own with spare clothes, food and drinks in cans and bottles.

Mello claimed all the chocolate they found of course...

'And what if we want any chocolate?' Matt asked jokingly.

The blond hugged his backpack where his chocolate in was close to his chest. 'Then you have bad luck! I'm claiming all of it. Who knows when we are out of this forest again? So I'm keeping it.'

Mello shot him his _"dare to steal some of my chocolate and you're dead"_ glare and Matt gulped nervously and turned his gaze away from the chocoholic.

 _I miss my games... there weren't any gaming devices in any of the suitcases and bags we found._

'Look what I found!' Near called them from some distance away.

The boy came back to them with his arms full with what looked like thick blankets, but when he stood before them Matt saw it weren't blankets. It were sleeping bags.

Near looked quite happy with his find. 'Now we won't be as cold as last night.'

Mello grabbed the sleeping bag that lay on top. 'There are only two sleeping bags... there are three of us.'

They shared a glance and Mello's face distorted in disgust. 'Ah hell no! I'm not going to share one with sheep right here!'

Near didn't show any reaction, but Matt sighed in annoyance. 'Then I'll share one with him or else with you. I really don't care with who I have to sleep as long I can sleep in a warm sleeping bag.'

'Fine,' Mello mumbled.

Near nodded. 'That's alright with me.'


	4. Chapter 4: Fire with a lone wolf

**Chapter 4: Fire with a lone wolf**

After the day came to an end and the sun began to go down again, the three boys decided to stop walking and build a campfire. Luckily they found a lighter and some matchboxes in the scattered baggage that day. That would help creating a fire to keep them warmer at night.

Near stood a few steps away from Mello who tried to light the wooden branches they gathered. Some stones formed a circle around the wood.

The blond grumbled something that he couldn't hear, but it was probably some curses. It was already at least fifteen minutes since Mello tried to create a fire.

Matt took a hesitant step towards his friend. 'Mels... I don't think you'll succeed making fire before the sun comes up again tomorrow morning. Don't you think it would be a good idea to let us-'

'No!' Mello growled. 'This is going to work! Just watch.'

 _Sometimes I wonder if he's half animal. He looks so often as if he's going to bite you if you anger him or piss him off._

'We're already watching you try long enough,' Matt sighed. 'Just give up.'

'I never give up! And certainly not with something simple like making a fire with a lighter.'

And so Mello went on trying. Near knew the lighter wouldn't do it forever so at some point the lighter would be useless. And at this rate it would be empty before the fire was lit.

 _We need something that will catch fire better instead of lighting the wood as first._

Near averted his glance off Mello and searched for something useful. It hadn't rained since they were here so everything was dry. His eye felt on the green moss growing on a tree close by. He thought it was worth a try.

He walked to the tree while Mello was still focused on the pile of wood with Matt beside him. He grabbed a handful of moss and went back to the soon to be fire. When he crouched down next to Mello the blond looked up with a grumpy expression on his face.

 _He's almost like an open book. His emotions are as easy to read as you would with words written on paper._

'What do you want?' Mello snapped at him.

Near put the moss in silence down between the wooden branches before replying.

Mello watched him as he frowned slightly in confusing. 'Why are you putting moss in the campfire?'

Near simply pointed with a finger at the moss. 'Try once to light this with the lighter.'

Mello's eyes went from Near to the moss to his lighter and back at Near again until Matt said to just do it. It was beginning to grow pretty dark. Finally he put his lighter to the moss and flicked it on. A small flame touched the dry moss and it caught on fire. The fire spread out further from the moss to the branches and they finally had a fire.

Near and Matt expected the other to make a mean comment at the smallest boy, but he just stared silently at the burning flames in front of him. His eyes narrowing slightly.

 _He's thinking why he didn't thought of that_ _solution and why he didn't understood the moss at first._

Near knew Mello was so focused on lighting the branches to create a fire, he hadn't thought that there could be another solution to help the branches catch fire. It was one of the flaws of Mello he knew.

'… Alright. Good job, Near! Now let's eat something before sleeping,' Matt interrupted the silence.

Matt went to get a bag of chips out of his own backpack and Near started to get his own to get something to eat. It was mostly junk food that they had found earlier, but it was better than nothing. The healthiest things in their backpacks were plastic bottles with water.

Mello huffed once and grabbed a chocolate bar.

They ate mostly in silence with Matt trying to get a conversation going. Near didn't speak much at all normally and Mello was still moody about the fire so Matt gave up eventually.

/\/\/\/\

Something felt wrong.

It was now completely dark in the forest except for the little space around the campfire. Matt lay next to him in the sleeping bag snoring softly. The redhead thought it would be better to let Mello have one for him own for tonight.

 _I feel eyes on me... someone is watching me._

He gave Matt a poke in his side. 'Matt,' he whispered. 'Wake up.'

Matt murmured something and opened his eyes slowly. 'Please don't tell me you're gonna keep me from sleeping every night.'

'Someone is watching us.'

He turned to look at his friend and saw the blond still sound asleep. His eyes widened in realisation when Near's words came through.

'What could it be?' he whispered back.

'A wild animal maybe? We haven't thought about the wild life in the forest yet. We have no idea in which part of the world we are so we can't know what animals live here,' Near answered.

A low growl went through the silence of the night and it sounded way too close for comfort. This was defiantly not a human like growl like Mello often did, but a growl of something that wasn't human at all.

Mello was instantly awake and turned to see both of them staring at him. Near had no idea what to do. It was too dark to run away and he was not strong enough to climb into a tree like Mello did the first day.

Very slowly Mello started to get up out of his sleeping bag. He tried to not make any sudden movements. Matt followed his example and slowly crawled out of the sleeping bag they shared. Near decided it was best to do what they did.

A bush, no more than a few meters away, made a rustling sound and slowly but surely a big wolf appeared in the light of the campfire. It's pelt had a greyish color and his eyes stared intensely at them all.

'It's a wolf. It's a real fucking wolf,' Matt squeaked nervously.

'What do we do?' Near murmured. Not daring to talk louder.

 _Is it a lone wolf or is it part of a whole pack? Are we in it's territory? I wish I knew more about wild life._

Mello didn't break his eye contact with the wolf and slowly moved his hand to the fire, grabbing the end of a burning branch. He held it in his hand for a moment and began to wave it vigorously in front of him while yelling at the wolf.

Near's eyes widened at the noise that he made, but understood that the noise and the fire could scare the wolf away. He grabbed a branch himself from the campfire and waved it just like Mello did. Matt joined them not long after.

The wolf watched them waving the fire and it's ears moved nervously at the loud yelling. It was most likely this was a lone wolf searching for a pack and a own territory for it's own. The wolf hadn't claimed this piece of land as his and had been only curious at the unfamiliar scents of humans.  
Slowly the wolf took a step back and more followed. Just before his tail touched the bush watched the three weird creatures one more time and then quickly turned around, disappearing in the night.

Mello sighed relieved and threw his branch back on the fire. 'That went surprisingly well.'

'What do you mean "that went well"?!' Matt hissed. 'Didn't you know for sure this would work?'

Mello shrugged. 'I've once seen an documentary on the television about wolves. I know not that much, but I remembered that making noise and not breaking eye contact could work.'

Matt let out a deep breath and dropped on his knees on the ground. 'I sincerely hope things like this won't happen to often. Otherwise I'll piss my pants from fear.'

Mello snorted humorous. 'Then I hope you have an extra pair of underwear in your backpack because we're stuck in this forest for awhile.'

Matt fell face first on the sleeping bag. 'Great,' he groaned.

* * *

 **I'm sorry for the pretty long wait! Normally I try to update the stories I'm busy with at least once a week, but this story is harder to write than I thought... It's because I don't have a big plot going on I think. They only have to survive and get to contact L or anyone who can help them, so every chapter I just begin typing and see where it's going xD**

 **I do have some ideas and an OC that's coming some time later though :)**


	5. Chapter 5: From bad guy to hero

**Some brotherly bonding time as requested :)**

 **And so you know, I'm not planning to make this romantic. It stays with friendship between the three of them :)**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: From bad guy to hero**

The next morning announced itself when the sun came up again and shone warm sunbeams to the cold forest below, warming it up. Though the sun shined and the cold disappeared more each minute, Near wasn't very happy feeling. Because the wolf that visited them in the middle of the night they had barely any more sleep. Slight shadows had appeared under their eyes. Not as bad as L, but if every night went like that it wouldn't take long.

Near nibbled on a cookie that he found in his backpack while they sat together around the weak fire, eating junk food as breakfast. His white clothes were gone and replaced with jeans and a blue shirt. His own clothes were not made for surviving in a forest so they were torn and unwearable very quickly. Now he was forced to wear a pair of jeans that scraped over his pale skin instead of the soft pajama pants. The color was something new too. He never wore clothes with color except white. And he couldn't see white as a real color.

 _I hope we find a way to escape this forest soon... It's so uncomfortable._

Mello and Matt stared in the small flames and looked just as bored as he felt. There was not much to talk about when you were together all the time and did the same things. It was only bound to time how long it would take before they were bored to death. It's dangerous to let a genius get very bored after all. Especially if you got three geniuses together who were bored.

Near felt a pair of eyes staring at him. He turned to look who it was and he met Matt's eyes. 'Why are you staring at me? Is there something wrong with me?' he asked bluntly.

Mello muttered under his breath that everything was wrong with him, but Near ignored his comment and directed his attention to Matt.

'Oh, no there's nothing wrong, just...' Matt paused to search for words to explain. 'It's just that I've never seen you in anything else than white. It's strange to see you suddenly with a color on you.'

'He's weird anyway,' Mello commented.

Matt gave Mello a soft push in his shoulder. 'Ah come on, Mels. That's not nice to say.'

Mello said nothing and continued to stare grumpily at the flames.

 _Apparently Mello need his beauty sleep in order to function properly._

'It feels strange for me too to wear something different, but it's needed in this situation. I can't do anything about it at this moment so I just have to deal with it for the moment being,' he replied to Matt.

Matt sighed. 'Yeah, that's the only thing we can do now. But what about the nights? We can't stay awake forever and it's clearly not safe to sleep here without watching our surroundings.'

'We can sleep in turns,' Mello suddenly joined the conversation. 'Two can sleep while the third keeps watch.'

Near nodded. 'Yes, that would be a good idea. That way we get to sleep more safely.' He looked around him. 'It seems like we're not in a tropical rainforest as the environment isn't wet enough. That saves us a lot of dangerous animals.'

'Maybe there are bears in this forest,' Mello said.

'Bears?!' Matt shrieked.

'There could be bears indeed,' Near nodded.

Matt stared at them incuriously. 'Are you scaring me on purpose? What if there _really_ are bears here!'

Mello turned to the redhead. 'Then you run like hell.'

'Or try to climb a tree,' Near added. 'Bears are pretty fast I believe.'

Mello grinned. 'Or we use Near as bait and save ourselves. It's not like he can run or climb very well.'

That suggestion earned him another push from Matt.

There followed a slightly awkward silence. Near didn't respond to Mello immediately, but then again; he always thought about his words before speaking them out loud.

'I'm happy Mello is with me, us, on this adventure,' Near stated suddenly.

Mello and Matt's mouth fell half open and stared at him dumbstruck. Mello was nothing but rude and mean to the small boy the whole time and still he was happy with the blonde's presence.

Mello blinked and finally found his voice again. 'Why?!'

'Because Mello is right about me being the weakest link in our little group,' he explained. 'If L only asked for my presence I would've had no idea what to do when the plane started to crash to the ground. I wouldn't have known what to do with the wolf and I'm not capable to climb as high in the tree as Mello did. That way I hadn't figured out which way would be the wisest to walk to.' Near paused for a short moment while he thought about one last thing. 'Besides, even if I had seen the parachute back at the plane and thought about using it, I'm almost sure I wouldn't have enough courage to jump in time.'

Near turned his gaze to Mello and saw the blond for once silenced. He stared at Near with a stunned look in his widened blue eyes.

'That the three of us are still alive is all because of Mello. It doesn't matter how you look at it, it all comes down to the same conclusion,' Near concluded.

Mello stared silently at Near and Near returned the gaze. After what felt like a few very long minutes Mello stood up from his sitting spot and picked up his backpack.

'The fire went out. It's time to start walking again. We don't have the time to sit all day.' With that he started to walk in the direction where the crashed plane would be.

Near quickly grabbed his own backpack and wanted to follow Mello, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him from doing so.

Matt let go of his shoulder when Near turned around to face him and he saw a big smile on the redhead's face. 'I know it seems like he doesn't care about what you said, but I know it meant a lot to him. You practically explained that Mello is better than you in this stuff and made him feel like the hero for once instead of the bad guy. Thank you for that.'

Matt patted his shoulder friendly and went after his best friend who had kept walking.

Near blinked slowly in puzzlement. He knew Mello was jealous about his first place as successor for L, he wasn't that stupid to not notice that. But he had no idea that what he had said would have this outcome.

 _I just said the truth..._

'NEAR!' Mello's voice sounded in the distance. 'Move that ass of yours and start walking or we'll leave you as bear bait!'

He turned around and saw both Mello and Matt were almost out of sight already. He quickly put his backpack on his back. He half walked half ran to catch up with the two.

A small, almost unnoticeable, smile curled his lips slightly up on his normally emotionless face.

 _Seems like he's back to normal again._

* * *

 ** _Review? :)_**


	6. Chapter 6: Grizzly games

**Chapter 6: Grizzly games**

Matt watched with jealously how Mello snapped a chocolate piece from one of his precious bars he got in his backpack. Mello got his chocolate, Near had found some round smooth stones he played with as replacement for his toys and he had nothing.

 _Why weren't there any gaming devices in those suitcases or things that fell out of the plane? Is it really necessary to let me behind with nothing to do?_

He sighed deeply. 'I'm so _bored_. If we stay much more longer in this forest I'll drop dead from boredom!'

'Why do you need your games so much actually?' Near asked.

Matt snorted amused. 'Are you kidding me? Why do you need your toys so much? Why is Mello a chocoholic? It's probably the same thing with my games.'

Near looked confused at him. 'Is chocoholic a real word?'

'Chocolate whore then.'

Mello looked up from his chocolate. 'Hey! I'm walking right next to you, you know? I can hear you!'

Matt shrugged. 'Don't deny the truth, Mels. We both know you would go very far for something like... Belgian chocolate.'

Mello's eyes glazed over when he was most likely thinking about Belgian chocolate now, but his dreamingly gaze was interrupted when he snapped his finger in front of his face.

'Y-you can't know such thing for sure!' Mello stuttered when he woke up from his short daydream.

Matt snickered. 'You talk in your sleep now and then. I'm pretty sure I've ever heard you say something like-'

Mello slapped his hand against the redhead's mouth to shut him up. 'Don't say such things aloud! You know it- AH GROSS, MATT!' The blond jerked his hand away from the redhead and wiped his hand off on his pants. 'You licked me!'

'You know I do that when you hold your hand before my mouth and still you seem surprised every time.'

'… It's still gross.'

'Well at least your'e not bored anymore now, Matt,' Near added.

The amused grin disappeared from his face. 'Thanks for reminding me...'

 _Aaaand I miss my games again._

Mello glared at the white boy. 'Great work, Sheep!'

'Sorry...'

They walked further while Matt sulked about his games. He may called Mello a chocoholic, but he was just as bad. It was years since he was introduced to gaming and since then he played almost every hour of the day. It kept his mind busy, it was exciting and he could do it while being lazy.

'Hey Matt! I got an idea!' Mello said suddenly.

He raised an eyebrow. 'What for idea?'

'We could make up some games ourselves,' Mello explained. 'For example, the first who reached that tree is the winner!' He pointed at a large tree about two hundred meters away.

'But I can't run as fast a you... that's unfair,' Near complained.

'Too bad for you, Shorty. And go!' Mello started to sprint towards the tree and Matt followed quickly after.

After hundred meters full speed running he remembered he had no condition. He always sat down with his games while Mello played soccer with the others back at Wammy's.

Matt reached the tree a few seconds after Mello and he had to keep himself up with the tree. He panted while leaning against the big tree. 'It's no fun if it's already clear who's gonna win the game.'

Mello grinned. 'It's not my fault you sit on your ass all day normally. Now you feel the outcome of that.'

Near caught up with them in a normal walking pace. He didn't do running if it wasn't needed and walked calmly to the two boys.

Mello huffed. 'Well at least you're a better runner than Near. He didn't even try.'

'It was useless for me to participate in your race. I would've lost anyway,' Near said.

 _Hmm... maybe I can win such a game if I play it differently._

'Mels, do you see that three there?' Matt asked and he pointed to a three about five hundred meters away.

'Yes, but I thought you didn't like this-'

'And GO!' He yelled and started running as hard as he could towards the tree. He heard Mello coming after him yelling "cheater" and he grinned in triumph. There was no way Mello could pass him before he reached the tree.

Matt let out a loud laugh when he heard Mello still yelling it was cheating. Matt had almost reached the tree when he heard something that made him stop running and froze him to the ground. Mello heard it too, but couldn't stop in time so he bumped to a halt against Matt's back.

A low deep growl sounded from not too far away.

Near had walked to the two frozen boys. 'What's wrong?' He hadn't heard the growl.

Matt's eyes widened when he saw the terrifying sight. 'Bear,' he whispered.

Near turned to where they were staring and saw a bear just like Matt had said. He froze on the spot.

The bear was a brown bear and it was enormous. It had big claws and the sharp teeth were bared. Another low growl sounded from the bear.

'It's a grizzly bear,' Mello said softly. 'That's one of the biggest bear types that exist.'

'What do we do what do we do?!' Matt said panicky.

'Mello,' Near said. He had lowered his voice too. 'Please tell us you saw a documentary about bears too on the television.'

The grizzly took hesitantly an step forward. It was most likely this bear had never seen humans in his life and didn't know what to expect.

'We probably surprised or scared it with our running and yelling. It will attack if it's doubts are gone and knows it's stronger than us.' Mello whispered quickly what he knew. 'Stay calm and don't run away. The grizzly is faster than we'll ever be and it will think were prey if we act like it.'

 _Stay calm? Stay calm?! There's a fucking grizzly bear in front of us! Not farther away than thirty meters!_

Everything in Matt's body screamed _run_ and _panic,_ but he did what Mello said and took a deep breathe to calm his breathing.

'We're too close to the bear to have enough time to climb into a tree and some grizzlies can climb and I've no idea if this one can do that,' Mello continued. 'We have no bear pepper spray so that can't work.'

'Then what should we do?!' Matt whispered desperately.

'Drop to the ground, curl into a fetal position and play dead. If they think you're dead, they won't think you're threatening. But _don't_ get up if you hear the grizzly go away and stay down until I say you can get up. Grizzlies are known for waiting around to see if their victim will get back up. They are intelligent.'

The grizzly took another step forward, but this time more sure of itself. The bear had figured out they weren't stronger than the bear.

'Now!' Mello said.

At the same time Matt, Mello and Near dropped to the ground and curled into a fetal position. They even tried to make breathing less noticeable and closed their eyes.

Heavy steps came closer and closer as the grizzly approached. It grunted almost annoyingly as if it was sad it couldn't win the fight. The death can't fight. It took some more steps and Matt felt some fur almost touching his arm as it walked by.

 _If it doesn't go away soon I'm really gonna piss my pants..._

The grizzly had passed him, but he didn't dare to open his eyes in fear he would give away he was still very much alive.

The grizzly grunted again and a dull thud was heard followed by another one. It sounded like someone tossed a body around.

 _Oh god... don't tell me it's looking if we're really dead and is going to toss us around. Is it Mello? Is it Near?_

Matt couldn't help his worry and curiosity and opened one of his eyes halfway. He saw the grizzly was not looking his way, but it was busy with hitting Near so he roll over the ground and sometimes even go up only to land with a thud back down. Matt was very impressed to see Near had not moved a finger and continued laying limp. If Matt didn't know better he would've thought Near actually passed out.

The grizzly gave Near one other blow and began to leave with another grunt. Matt closed his eye quickly and remember to stay down until Mello said it was safe.

He stayed down for what felt like an eternity and finally Mello spoke.

'Okay, it's safe.'

Matt scrambled to his feet, just like Mello, and turned to Near who didn't get up from the ground or even reacted.

'Near?' Matt asked worried.

He and Mello looked each other in the eyes and he saw even Mello was concerned about the boy. Near lay flat on his stomach so he flipped the small boy on his back. His eyes were closed, but his clothes weren't torn and no wounds were seen except for some scratches and beginning bruises on his pale skin.

'I think he passed out from fear,' Mello said. He looked relieved to see that Near had nothing serious.

'Well, it's not strange. I mean, you don't get tossed around everyday by a grizzly bear,' Matt mumbled.

Mello nodded. 'Anyway, we have to move away from here and get a larger distance between us and the grizzly. It sounded like it walked away in the direction where we came from so that's a good thing.'

Matt patted Near cheek softly in an attempt to wake up the boy. When it didn't work he turned to Mello with the question clear on his face.

'What are we going to do with Near?'

Mello seemed to think about it and Matt almost expected him to joke about leaving him. Instead the blond reached his hands out to the boy and took him into his arms, carrying him bridal style. He stood up and nodded his head to where they had to walk.

'Let's go.'

* * *

 **So for this chapter I actually googled what you have to do if you encounter a bear. I came on this website that had first an explanation about what to do if a Black Bear attacks you and there was a picture of it with the text and the bear looked like something you want to hold in your arms and cuddle.  
** **But I needed a Grizzly so I scrolled down and under the cute photo of the Black Bear was the Grizzly and it looked fluffy but that face O.O Just that face and expression that Grizzly had on that photo made me feel scared... so I thought perfect! Let's put in a Grizzly for the boys :D**


	7. Chapter 7: Down he goes

**Chapter 7: Down he goes**

It was a few hours since Near fainted and they had encountered the grizzly bear. Mello had carried the small boy for kilometers and even when Matt asked to help carry Near he refused. Mello knew it was absurd and not his fault, but he felt responsible for the scare that caused Near to pass out. It was his idea to play dead after all. It wasn't his fault the bear decided to toss Near around to see if he stayed still, but he couldn't help but feel guilty. Even if it's for Near.

'Mello?' a soft voice asked sleepily.

He looked down and saw Near with those big dark grey eyes staring up at him. Mello stopped abruptly with walking and Matt smiled when he saw Near had woken up.

'Finally awake?'

Near blinked a few times while he tried to process where he was and what happened. 'Why am I in Mello's arms?'

Mello dropped the boy instantly and he came with a thud on the ground. 'Well somebody had to carry you after you passed out when the grizzly was done playing with you,' he said indifferently.

Matt gave the blond a meaningful glance. He knew Mello insisted on carrying Near himself because he felt guilty. But Mello simply ignored him and gave Matt a glare that said " _shut up or else"_.

In the meantime Near had scrambled to his feet in front of Mello where he was dropped on the ground. The small boy had to look up to watch into Mello eyes because he was at least a head shorter. 'Thank you for carrying me all this time,' he said in his annoying monotone voice. Face expressionless again.

'Yeah, whatever...' Mello mumbled.

 _I actually really don't feel like being nice to him... but what the hell am I supposed to say when he acts so_ nice? _Stupid little sheep... He's just doing it to make me feel uncomfortable._

'Are you feeling okay again, Near?' Matt asked, interrupting Mello's thoughts.

Near nodded. 'I'm fine. Although I'd like something to eat that's not junk food.'

Matt turned to Near. 'Didn't you say some time ago about searching for edible berries or herbs? We could do that now! We have enough time before the sun goes down to search.' He took a few steps away to go and search, but suddenly stopped and turned around once again. 'But no killing bunnies!' he added.

Mello rolled his eyes and started searching too. He didn't want to admit it, but he became pretty sick of eating only junk food too. So they examined every plant and bush they came across.

'Uhmm...' Matt began after awhile. 'Do any of you actually know what plant is poisonous or not? Because I don't.'

'I don't know much about plants or herbs, but I know about 90 percent of purple, blue and black berries are edible, so ignore everything that's not that color,' Mello replied.

Matt blinked. 'How on earth do you know so much about this stuff? First the wolf, then the bear and now berries?'

He shrugged and began inspecting a plant with red fruit that seemed like wild strawberries. 'I guess I remembered most things I saw on television. I watched a lot of Discovery like channels on rainy days when I couldn't play outside.'

'Matt, you're almost always with Mello,' Near said. 'Why don't you remember him watching that?'

'Well... I played a lot on my Gameboy and-'

Mello held up his hand to stop the redhead in his sentence. 'Say no more. You thought what I was watching was boring and continued gaming without paying any attention to the TV, am I correct?'

'Yeah...'

Mello sighed. 'Well at least I think I found something we can eat. I'm pretty sure these are strawberries so I'll pluck them.

He crouched down on the ground and gathered as much strawberries as his hand could hold. Matt and Near shuffled nearby to look for something else that they could add by the strawberries. Mello got an idea and took a small plastic container out of his backpack. He found it in the scattered baggage and used it to keep small candies safe. Now he emptied the container and filled it with the strawberries. This way he could gather much more.

'I got something edible too!' Matt exclaimed happily.

Mello stood from his crouch and put the strawberries safe in his backpack. 'What did you found?'

'I think they're blueberries!' Matt began to pluck some of the blue purple colored berries and tasted them. 'Yes, definitely blueberries.'

Matt began eagerly with plucking the blueberries. 'There are so many! Near, I don't think we have to eat much of that junk food today.'

'Good, because I've found nothing that's good to eat so far,' Near answered. He stood a few meters away, still looking for something to eat.

Mello smiled at the sight of the redhead. He was gathering the berries with much enthusiasm.

'Oh, even better! There are more berries in the bush behind!'

Mello shook his head, still smiling. He turned away from Matt and decided to look if there was more he could gather.  
He had just turned around when an fearful shriek echoed through the trees. Mello jerked around just in time to see Matt's red hair disappear in the green bushes.

'MATT!'

Mello rushed to the bushes his friend disappeared in and noticed the large bushes with blueberries blocked the view of the ground behind it.

Near came running to him. 'What happened with Matt?'

'He fell through the bushes or something. I don't know where he is now! I can't see him lying in between them.'

Near carefully walked to the right where the many blueberries bushes stopped and he pushed one to the side. His eyes widened in shock. 'Mello, there's an sort of small abyss behind the bushes! The ground here is much lower than where we stand!'

Mello went to Near and took a look. He saw the ground was indeed much lower there. His mouth fell open when he saw a certain redhead lying beneath them. The small abyss was luckily not high enough to fall immediately to your death if you fell well, but it was still about four meters.

Matt lay with his eyes closed on the ground below. He was not moving.

 _Why is he not moving?!_

'Matt!'

No response.

'We have to go down to get him,' Near said.

'I'll go. We can't have you falling down as well.' Mello pushed Near to the side, dropped his backpack and started to climb down. The stone wall offered enough grip for his feet and hands.

'But you can fall as well, Mello.'

'I don't care,' Mello said firmly. 'I need to get Matt back to safety.'

Near didn't try to change his mind again and let him climb down. It wasn't a very bad climb luckily and he could get to Matt without falling. He rushed to his side and saw that his leg had grazed the stone wall in his fall. His left leg was scraped and bloody. Mello couldn't see why he lost consciousness, but he figured Matt hit his head when he got to the ground. He ran carefully his hand through the red hair, but no blood came on his hand.

Mello sighed relieved. _He hasn't have any major wounds._

He looked up to see Near staring down on him from the top of the abyss. He looked down again where Matt lay and to the new area around him. He thought it was the best if they all stayed down here. There was no way he could carry an unconscious Matt up the stone wall.

'Near, I need you to climb down.'

Near's eyes widened slightly. 'What? But you said I would fall.'

Mello sighed. 'Yes, I said that, but it's better if we stayed down here. I can't carry Matt up there right now and we have to stay together. Besides it's wiser to go downwards. That means we're going to sea level. There a bigger chance there are people living by water.'

Near took a hesitant look down the abyss. 'Alright...'

Slowly the small boy turned around to climb off the wall. It went much more slower than Mello did, but the blonde didn't expect Near to be fast anyway. Just to be sure he stood close to the wall. It was good he did, because when Near was only one meter above the ground his feet slipped and he fell down. Mello caught him on time and put him on his feet. The emotionless boy seemed undisturbed by the climb, but in that short moment when Mello held him he felt the boy tremble a bit.

'We're going to camp here tonight. Go and seek some wood for the fire,' he commanded. 'I'll clean Matt's leg and put him in the sleeping bag to rest.'

Near simply nodded and did what was told him to do.

* * *

 **I have still no idea how long this story's gonna be, but I hope it'll be somewhere between the 15 or 20 chapters :)  
**

 **Review? :D**


	8. Chapter 8: Feed me

**Chapter 8: Feed me**

Mello watched Near go to search for some wood they could use tonight. His gaze turned to the still unconscious Matt next to him. He was still laying on the ground, what didn't look too comfortable. So he grabbed one of the sleeping bags and rolled it out. He put his arms carefully under the limp body and moved him from the ground to the soft sleeping bag that now functioned as mattress.

 _I believe each of us had a small box with first aid things put in our backpacks._

Mello looked for the small white box with a red cross on it and eventually found it. He opened the box and took a look at the bandages, plasters and even a bottle with disinfectant.

 _Thank god we found those scattered baggage earlier. Otherwise we would be doing a lot worse than we are now._

He used the disinfectant to clean Matt's scraped leg and he was happy for the redhead that he was not aware of the stuff put on his open wound. It would've stung and hurt like hell otherwise.  
After the wound was clean Mello took a bandage from the first aid kit and began to wrap it around the wounded part of his leg. He hadn't seen anything on television that had learned him how to do this, so he just did what he thought was good. His intelligence was considered to be on a genius level. Wrapping a bandage around a leg wasn't the hardest thing ever to succeed.

Now Matt was cared for and Near had yet to return with wood for the fire, Mello decided he could climb back up the stone wall to gather more of those blueberries. Those bushes were literally just four meters above his head and it would be a waste to not pluck some. Who knew when they would find more berries or things they could eat?

With the agility of someone who almost always played outside (climbing in trees, playing soccer, escaping from Roger at Wammy House) he climbed back up the wall. Before he began the climb he had thrown an empty plastic container up there. Within a few more minutes the container was almost full with delicious looking blueberries.

 _I'm going to eat more fruit here than I've ever done back home._

'Mello?'

The blonde pushed the bushes aside and saw Near walking to the spot below where they would camp that night. The boy looked around to see if he saw Mello somewhere. His arms full with wooden branches.

'I'm up here,' he said, waving the hand that hold the now full container of blueberries. 'I got some more berries. Matt would be sad if he fell down for nothing, right?'

Near raised his head when he heard the blonde's voice and said: 'You're right. He would be.'

He dropped the branches and started making a campfire with them. Mello watched how the boy made a perfect steady campfire, putting the branches together with skill.

 _It's probably almost the same as building towers with cards or making a puzzle as he always does in his free time._

Mello decided to let Near build the fire. He knew he was lucky enough to get his chocolate, but Near and Matt had nothing to sooth their addictions. There were no game devices in a forest and no toys so this came the closest to what he liked to do.

He went to the edge next to the bushes and was about to go down again when he noticed he had the container full of blueberries in one hand. He needed both his hands to climb down.

'Hey! Catch this or I can't climb down,' Mello said.

Near looked up from his finished campfire that only had to be lightened. He walked over to the edge of the abyss and held his arms forward, ready to catch it.

Mello dropped the container and Near did actually catch it without letting it fall to the ground. He climbed down with ease and took the blueberries from him. Mello grabbed his backpack and stuffed the container next to the other one with the strawberries. He picked up his lighter to light the fire, but hesitated. He glanced at the perfect campfire and back at Near who watched him.

With a sigh he reached out the lighter to the boy. 'Here, you do it.'

Near's expression didn't change much, but Mello could see his eyes widened just slightly. The blond figured he was puzzled why he would give that task to Near while yesterday he didn't want anyone else making the fire.

He had no idea what possessed him to do this, but it felt right to do.

 _I'm probably becoming sick or something..._

A groan sounded from the rolled out sleeping bag and Mello felt relieved when he saw Matt waking up.

Matt blinked and he groggily took in his surroundings. 'Whah happened?' he mumbled.

Mello went to sit by his friend's side. 'You fell down a small abyss that was hidden behind the bushes.'

'Oh.' The redhead tried to sit up, but let out a pained groan and put his head down on the sleeping bag again. 'My head hurts,' he whined.

'That doesn't surprise me,' Mello answered. 'You hit your head in your way down to the ground.'

'And you scraped your leg pretty badly,' Near added. The boy had moved to Matt's other side.

Matt raised his left leg slightly and grimaced at the sight of the bandage. He lowered his leg and sighed. 'Who knew gathering berries would be dangerous?'

Mello grinned. 'Only you can make the most complete safest thing turn dangerous.'

'You know,' Near jumped in the conversation. 'We should probably eat before it gets dark. Now Matt is awake he can eat something too.'

'Alright then.' Mello grabbed his backpack and put the two containers filled with berries before them on the ground. 'Finally some food that isn't junk food.'

Near simply nodded and put a strawberry in his mouth, looking pleased with the healthy food.

'Hey... don't you forget someone?' Matt pouted. 'I can't get up without my head throbbing madly.'

Mello rolled his eyes. 'How could we forget you? You would most likely whine until you get something to eat.'

He took some blueberries form the container and held them above Matt's mouth. 'Open,' he said.

Matt opened his mouth and Mello dropped the blueberries. After he swallowed them Near gave Matt a strawberry.

Matt chewed satisfied and swallowed the strawberry. 'Feed me, my peasants!' he exclaimed.

Mello growled. 'Don't push it.'

Matt laughed. 'I don't get you to feed me everyday so I'll push it as far as I can right now.'

He huffed. 'You're lucky you're already hurt. Now shut up or no food for you.'

Secretly he smiled at Matt's antics.


	9. Chapter 9: Dreams

**By the way, Mello and Matt are 16 and Near is 14 (although he looks like 10 or 11).**

* * *

 **Chapter 9: Dreams**

Near took a sip of the now cold water. They had enough water and other drinks to keep going for a few more days, but after that they had to find clean water in the forest. For now the empty water bottles were kept so they could fill them again.

He took another sip and shivered. It was his turn to keep watch for at least a few more hours. The water, chilled because of the cold night, helped him keeping his eyes open. The first watch of the night was always the most terrible. They had decided Matt could sleep through the whole night so he could take his rest after he had fallen off the abyss.

Near stared silently at the warm flames that cast some light around their camping spot. At times like this he had enough time to overthink what would happen. And those were things he rather not thought about.

 _Will we get safe and sound back home? Is L already searching for us? Will we get out alive?_

They had survived a plane crash, encountered a wolf, a bear and Matt had fallen down a small abyss. Although they had bad luck, it always turned out fine afterwards.

 _Even Mello seems a little bit more okay with me... I guess that's the biggest wonder._

Near turned to look at the sleeping blond in one of the sleeping bags. He looked very peaceful in his sleep. Less troubled.

Suddenly a soft sound came from the sleeping blond. It took Near a moment to understand that Mello was mumbling in his sleep. It was incomprehensible what he said though.

 _So Matt spoke the truth when he said Mello speaks in his sleep now and then._

He glanced at Matt and saw the redhead fast asleep in the second sleeping bag. Near put the water bottle down and slowly crawled over to where Mello lay. He had stopped mumbling, but it was still worth a try.

'Mello, do you hear me?' he whispered very softly. It was not his plan to wake him up. Mello would most likely strangle him if he knew what he was about to do.

 _Maybe now I can ask a few things without him refusing to answer._

He waited for an answer, but Mello said nothing.

'Mello?'

'Mhmya...'

Near's eyes widened slightly in surprise when he finally got a reply. First he was afraid Mello had awakened, but his eyes stayed closed and his breathing was still calm and even.

He tried to think of a simple question to test if he would really answer. 'Could you tell me how old you are?'

'… Sixteen,' Mello mumbled.

It was hard to understand what he said, but Near managed it. He leaned a little bit closer to Mello to hear him better.

'Why do you hate me so much?' Near asked.

'...Don't know. Always better... than me.'

Near frowned. _But that's not true... There are a lot things Mello's better in._

He wanted to ask further, but Mello began to stir in his sleep. His breathing changed and Near knew he had to get away before Mello saw how close he sat next to him. He crawled back to his spot by the fire and turned his gaze away from the waking boy.

Mello grunted and his eyes fluttered open. Near turned his head to watch him as if he only just now had noticed he had woken.

'It's not time yet for Mello to wake up. I've still some hours to keep watch.'

Mello's now open eyes saw Near and seemed a little bit confused. Finally he moved and turned his back to him. 'Good,' he muttered.

Near stared at Mello's back for a moment and knew it was wise to not try to speak to Mello in his sleep again. He'd rather not risk getting Mello angry.

* * *

 _I had such a weird dream..._

Mello had kept the watch until the morning. Though the weird dream that he had that night kept his thoughts busy. He was playing soccer in the backyard of Wammy's and suddenly in the middle of the game Near stopped him kicking the ball into the goal. Then it was followed with Near asking him questions. The moment the turned to the small boy all the others of his team disappeared and it was only them.

 _But I can't remember any more details or the questions... I woke abruptly and fell asleep fast after._

Mello shook his head as if he could shake his thoughts away. It wasn't the time to ponder about a stupid dream.

He turned to Matt who stood upright and kicked some sand over the fire to put it out. 'Are you sure you can walk?'

Matt shot him a smile. 'I'm sure, Mels. My headache is gone and my leg is only scraped, not broken.'

Mello sighed. 'Okay then, let's go.'

And so another day full of walking started. Mello was sure he never walked so far in is whole life. The smoke that came from the crashed plane seemed small in the distance that day when he climbed in the tree. He knew the smoke plume must've been a lot larger when seen from close by. That would mean that they had to cross miles and miles of this forest.

 _There's a chance L found the plane already and sent people to look for us here in the forest. I hope they'll find us or we find them._

They managed to walk quite far when they sun stood high at noon. Matt needed to stop and sit to rest a few minutes now and then, but it didn't stop them much.  
They encountered no dangerous animals in that time and everything felt serene. Although it was calm and quiet Mello felt it was only a matter of time before they ran into the next problem.

His feeling was right.

He raised his hand to stop Near and Matt from walking further and they stood immediately still. He turned his head to the sound he heard.

'What's wrong? Another animal?' Matt said softly, keeping is voice low.

'I thought I heard something rustling in the bushes over there.' Mello nodded his head to a high pair of bushes about twenty meters away.

The bushes rustled again and some branches snapped.

'What do we do?' Near whispered. 'Run?'

Mello shook his head. 'No, it's not wise to run. If it's another grizzly bear it will see us as a prey and chase us.'

The bushes rustled harder and steps snapped more branches on the ground.

 _We'll have to wait and see what's in that bushes._

He grabbed Matt and Near by their sleeves and pulled them behind himself. 'Stay behind me,' he commanded. He braced himself and stared unblinking at the possible danger.

 _I'm ready._


	10. Chapter 10: Someone new

**Chapter 10: Someone new**

'There you are!' a _human_ voice said.

Mello blinked and his eyes widened in astonishment. He heard Matt gasp, clearly not expecting this outcome either.

The cause of the rustling in the bushes struggled free from them and exclaimed: 'Finally I've found you guys!'

It was a girl.

 _What the..._

He let his eyes roam over the figure that had appeared before them. There was no question that this was a girl. Long brown hair with bright red streaks here and there. A crimson shirt with a black skull decorating the front. Over her shirt she wore a dark blue sleeveless jacket. She had a backpack hanging onto her shoulders. In her black jeans were ripped, but that was supposed to. Her outfit was completed by black leather ankle boots that were decorated with a few straps.

The girl raised an eyebrow. 'You almost done with checking me out?'

'W-what are you doing here? And how do you know us?' Mello said. He was still pretty shocked by her sudden appearance.

'I came here the same way you did actually.' She took a few steps forward so they were at a normal distance to hold a conversation. 'I saw you three putting those parachutes on and I decided to search for one for myself. I managed to find another parachute, put it on and jumped out of the plane. You were already gone by the time I jumped so I landed not on the same spot as you.'

Matt and Near came from behind Mello's back to see her better. There was clearly no danger as they first thought.

'So... you jumped after us? Are there more who survived the crash?' Matt asked.

She shook her head. 'Nope, I haven't seen anyone else in the right state of mind to pay attention to you or me. I'm the only one who saw what you were doing and acted immediately.'

'No one else? Were you alone on the plane then?' Near added in the conversation.

'Yup, I was alone. But that's not important right now.' The girl seemed like she didn't want to talk about why she was alone and shrugged off the question.

'What's important is that I'm with your group from now on,' she stated.

'Hey wait a minute!' Mello took a step forward and narrowed his eyes as he stared at her. 'We know nothing about you! For all we know you could throw us for the wolves when you can and let us die!'

He felt a hand on his shoulder in a calming gesture. He saw in the corner of his eyes it was Matt.

'Mels, please think this over. She's just as us looking for a way out of this forest. We can't let her go on her own. We have to work together and we have a bigger chance to survive when we are with more.'

The girl sighed. 'The redhead is right. I just want to get out of here and go on with my life. If it's so hard to trust me while you don't know anything about me, I'll tell you something about me.' She looked like she thought about her words. 'My name is Alexis and I'm sixteen years old. I'm from London, but that won't be a surprise because we all were on the same plane that started flying from London...'

Mello crossed his arms. 'And?'

The girl, Alexis, shrugged. 'That's it. More you don't have to know about me. The details are not important.'

He opened his mouth to tell her to go away, but Matt was before him.

'That's enough for now. Welcome to the group!' he smiled.

Alexis smiled happily back at him. 'Thank you so much!'

Matt began to speak for Mello because he wasn't in the mood to be nice to the new girl.

'I'm Matt.' He pointed to Near. 'And this is Near.'

Near gave a small "hi" and kept quiet for the rest. Alexis said hi back. Mello could see the sheep had no idea what to think about their new group member.

'And this moody blond is Mello,' Matt said with a grin.

Mello gave him a glare, but stayed silent.

/\/\/\/\

They explained Alexis where they were walking to and she thought it was a very good plan and even complimented Mello for his idea to go back to the crashed plane. Mello just mumbled a "thanks" and kept walking. Matt did most of the explanation though. He still didn't trust her and Near was almost always pretty a silent kid. First he would think about the new addition to the group and examine her from a distance before approaching. That was the way he rolled.

It was hard to not like Matt. It was one of the things that kept surprising him. Matt was a hardcore gamer and rarely played with the other kids at the orphanage. Despite of this, people always seemed to like him quickly and open up to him as if he was actually very _social_.

But now the gamer had no games to play and he filled the time with talking to Alexis instead. Since Mello did not feel like talking and being _nice_ to the girl, he had to walk alone. Listening to their conversation. There was of course Near too, but that was no option.

 _I'm not that desperate..._

'Hey Mello,' Alexis said to him. 'I heard you know stuff about berries.'

'Yeah,' he replied. 'What about it?'

'Well I don't know a lot about berries, but I know some edible plants. I've learned a thing or two about survival. It seemed handy to know about some of that.'

This got some of his attention. 'What do you mean? It sounds like you already expected you needed to survival on your own.'

'I just mean you never know when you could need that knowledge.' She turned her gaze away from him. 'Besides I needed to care for myself for a long time anyway. It was not like my parents cared for me very well,' she added mumbling.

Now she had the full attention of all three of them.

'Parents?' Mello frowned. 'But you were alone on the plane... Where are your parents then?'

'At home.'

'And where are you going?'

'Not to home.'

'But why-'

'Oh look!' she interrupted him. 'Some chickweed!' And she ran off to a green plant.

Mello, Matt and Near shared a glance. They knew that she had something she didn't want to talk about. She kept it hidden why she was on a plane on her own and kept most details of her life a secret.

Mello turned to Matt. 'I don't like it when I don't know what she tries to hide,' he whispered. 'She's going to be with us for some time and for all we know Alexis murdered someone, or even her parents, and she's on the run!'

'That's a little bit farfetched, Mels. But I'll try to get to know about her more.' He looked Mello right in the eye. 'And you're going to try to be nice to her until then.'

'But-'

'No buts. Don't be so difficult. You have no reason to hate her.'

Mello sighed defeated. 'Fine... I'll be nice...'

Matt smiled. 'Good! Now let's look what she found.'

* * *

 **Thank you Nifawiwa for the idea of putting a girl into the group of survivors :)  
** **The Greek meaning of the name Alexis is helper or defender. I thought it was a good name for her.**

 **Review! :)**


	11. Chapter 11: Alaska

**Chapter 11: Alaska**

'What did you say you found?' Matt asked as he, Mello and Near walked up to her.

Alexis pointed at a green plant that covered a part of the forest ground. It had a lot of little leaves. 'This plant is called chickweed. It's mostly used for in salads or soups.'

Matt crouched down next to her and examined the plant.

 _I thought she just said that so she could escape our questions, but apparently it's true._

He look at her questioningly. 'Should we gather some?'

She nodded. 'Yes, it's never wrong to have too much food with you.'

Alexis reached out and plucked some of the green leaves. Matt didn't want to just sit there and watch so he began to help her.

'Mello, Near, come and help too. We'll need a lot of this to actually have enough for a meal.'

Near started moving and crouched down on the ground too. Mello stood there for a moment doing nothing. Matt just wanted to turn around to say to start helping when he began to gather too.

Matt hid a smile. _At least he's trying to be nice._

They gathered a lot of chickweed together until the plant was almost gone. When they were done someone who was silent for most of the time broke the silence.

'Could I ask you something?' Near asked to Alexis.

The girl turned surprised to look at the small boy who until now didn't say anything to her except the soft "hi". 'Of course you can!'

'I would like to know if you could tell me the destination of the plane we were on.'

Alexis blinked confusingly. 'Wait what? You mean you got on a plane and didn't even know where it would go?'

Near simply nodded.

She turned to look at Matt and Mello, but the boys shrugged.

'He's right,' Matt said. 'We had, and still have, no idea where the plane would take us.'

 _Because it would be safer for L._

She opened her mouth to ask why probably, but Mello spoke first. 'And we can't tell you exactly _why_. I can only tell you it was because of security reasons that we couldn't know where we were going... but it would be nice to know now we landed in the middle of nowhere.'

Alexis narrowed her eyes and glanced suspiciously at the three of them. 'Okaaay… nothing weird about that.'

Mello snorted. 'Yeah, just like there's nothing weird about you not wanting to tell us stuff.'

'… Touché.'

'But…' Matt began. 'Do you want to tell us where the plane was going?' He did his puppy eyes just to make sure it would be a yes.

Alexis snickered. 'Fine, but only because you rock that puppy look.'

 _I can just feel that Mels rolls his eyes at that comment._

'The plane we were on was going to the US. New York City to be precise.'

'New York?' Near said. 'Would that mean we're somewhere in a big forest in the US?'

Matt thought about it, but knew it didn't sound quite right. 'We flew to the East over countries like Germany and China so that would mean we would enter the US from the west side…'

'… and west of the US is Alaska,' Mello finished.

 _Alaska has grizzlies and wolves right_ _? I think it's right._

Near blinked. 'Matt, how do you know over which countries we flew? You were gaming the whole time.'

Matt shrugged. 'I can do two things at once. Sometimes.'

Alexis put her hands up. 'Ho ho, wait a minute. You mean we are in _Alaska_?'

'I'm afraid so,' Matt said.

Her eyes widened. 'Are you fucking kidding me?! Alaska has a very few people living here! How are we gonna find someone that can help us?'

Mello had an answer to that. 'As we, or Matt, explained earlier we're going to walk in the direction of where the plane crashed. It's likely people will know where the plane crashed or someone saw the smoke too and they'll go and look.'

This seemed to brighten up Alexis. 'That's right! Then why are we still standing here doing nothing? We got the chickweed, so let's go!'

Alexis started walking in a quick pace and they followed quickly after her.

'Come on! Don't be slow! I want to get out of here!' she yelled back at them.

'Shhh! Keep your voice down!' Mello hissed. 'Don't yell so loudly, we don't want to have a bear hear us or any other sort of animal.'

She cocked her head to the side. 'Bears? I haven't seen any… or any other animal that could be described as dangerous.'

'We've encountered one wolf and a grizzly bear so far,' Matt explained to her.

Alexis nodded thoughtfully. 'Alright, I'll be more careful.' She frowned slightly and added. 'Can you eat bear meat?'

The three turned their heads to stare in disbelief at the girl. They knew she had not seen a grizzly in real life yet, but still…'

'I have no idea!' Mello stared at her incredulously. 'How on earth would you kill such beast in the first place?'

Alexis took the backpack from her back and zipped it open. When she pulled a knife out her backpack their eyes only widened more.  
It wasn't as small as the normal pocketknife, but not a dagger either. It was somewhere in between, like a big pocketknife.

She held up the knife and shrugged. 'I can try it with this. I don't know if it would work, but I'll make it work somehow.'

Matt watched the knife in wonder and curiosity while Mello seemed to lost some more trust in her. Near just watched what happened before him in silence.

'Why do you have that with you?' Matt asked.

A grin slowly spread across her face. 'Security reasons...'

 _Mello said that earlier as reason for not knowing where the plane would go to. She's using our own words against us and she knows it._

The blond's eyes narrowed. 'Don't you dare dodge the question,' he said with a low growl. 'I want to know why you carry that with you!'

Alexis raised her hands in surrender. 'Alright, alright! Don't get your panties in a knot!' She threw the knife back in her backpack and sighed. 'Just think about it. I'm a girl, all alone and I'm going to a foreign country where I've never been. I've heard stories about what could happen to lone girls in the big city! I just wanted to be able to defend myself when needed so that's why I have this with me.'

Mello stayed silent and Matt nodded. 'Sounds like a legit reason to me.' He nudged his friend with his elbow. 'Right, Mels?'

'Yeah… sounds reasonable,' he muttered as reply.

'How did you get through the security on the airport with that knife in the first place?' Near suddenly asked.

She smiled at him. 'With smart thinking and some luck.' And she started walking again to avoid more questions.

Matt grinned as he started to follow her with the two others.

 _This is going to be interesting._

* * *

 **I have no idea if a plane flies over Germany and China from England to get to the US or if it just goes over the Atlantic Ocean, but it's like that in this story. I'll make it work xD**

 **Also I'm asking you guys for some ideas for future chapters. My writing has been slow because of the lack of ideas. So if you have any ideas or want to see something happen, please let me know :)**


	12. Chapter 12: Meat

**Chapter 12: Meat**

It was a long day of walking before the four of them decided to prepare for the night. Luckily for them there were no problems like bears that crossed their path.

Mello threw Near his lighter. 'Make us a fire.'

Near nodded and started to gather some wood.

The blond turned to Matt and Alexis. 'We still have some blueberries and a lot of chickweed, but it would be wise to search for more food. Tomorrow we'll don't have time to look for that if we want to start walking early.'

Alexis rubbed her hands together. 'Sounds good to me! I'll be going this way,' she said excited and turned to look for more food.

Matt snickered. 'Someone is excited to gather some more.'

Mello rolled his eyes. 'I really don't want to know what she thinks is so fun in gathering food.' He turned to Matt. 'We are going to look for more food too, so get your ass moving!'

He began to walk away in some direction he thought was good. Though he came not farther than a few steps before Matt grabbed his arm to stop him.

He watched Matt with confusion. 'What?'

'Uhmm…' Matt searched for words. 'Can we go together?'

'Sure… but why?'

Matt sighed. 'Last time I went looking for berries I fell down pretty hard,' he mumbled.

Mello grinned. 'You're afraid it happens again when you go alone?'

'Yeah... pretty much.'

 _I won't joke about it… for now. He seems embarrassed enough._

'Alright then, this way!'

Matt followed him, glad that Mello didn't embarrass him more.

They went together and kept an eye out for more chickweed or any kind of berry that looked edible. It took probably more than half an hour, but Mello saw finally a familiar red color. It were a bunch of wild strawberries. He pointed it out to Matt and not much later they had the plastic container filled with strawberries again.

They returned to their camping place for the night and saw Near had already a good fire going on. But there was someone missing…

 _Wait… Where's Alexis?_

Matt seemed to think the same thing. 'Is Alexis not back already?'

Near shook his head. 'No, I haven't seen her since you three went looking for more to eat.'

He frowned. 'But we were gone for at least an hour. What's taking so long?'

'Maybe she hasn't found anything yet and doesn't want to return without something edible?' Matt reasoned.

Mello huffed irritated. 'That's just plain stupid. It won't be long until the sun is fully under and there'll be no light. I don't know if she got a flashlight or something.'

Mello caught Matt staring at him with a certain look. 'What?'

The redhead grinned. 'Oh nothing, it's just that you say it's stupid, but it does sound like something you would do too.'

He felt his blood slowly beginning to boil. 'You're calling me stupid?!'

Matt noticed his mood switch. 'No! Of course not!' he said quickly.

'I don't think Matt called you stupid intentionally, Mello. It just came out like that,' Near jumped in.

The angry blond balled his hand in a fist and glared at the small boy. 'You...'

'Ah, I see I'm just in time to join the party.'

Mello, Matt and Near turned to the voice who interrupted Mello's fit of anger. There coming out of the forest and stepping into the light of the fire was Alexis.

'Where the hell have you been all that time?!' Mello asked.

Alexis laughed. 'Ahww, did you miss me?' Before Mello could turn his anger to her she reached out her hand to show the boys what took her so long. 'Look! I managed to catch us some meat!' she stated happily.

Mello forgot instantly why he was angry in the first place and his eyes widened in shock when he saw what she held in her hand. He saw Matt turning pale and looking as if he was about to faint. Even Near looked surprised at the sight before him.

In her hands were a few pieces meat, still bloody. It was clear she had skinned the whatever animal it was before.

 _She… she killed and skinned an animal… probably with that knife of hers._

Alexis watched all three their faces turning into horror, surprise, shock and slight fear. The last one mostly by Matt.

'What's wrong? We can't live forever on plants and berries, right? We need proteins to survive too!'

'She got a point,' Near said.

… _Stupid robot…_

Mello sighed. 'I guess you're right… but it's still horrifying you could kill and skin that thing all by yourself.' He tried to imagine what animal it was before, but couldn't see it except it would've been a small one. 'By the way, what was that for animal?'

'A rabbit.'

Matt let out a squeal. 'A cute little bunny?!'

Alexis gave the pieces meat a glance before turning to Matt. 'Yes, a cute little bunny that's now a little meal.'

Matt turned slightly green at this point.

Alexis saw the fire burning warm and bright and smiled. 'Perfect! Now I only need a good stick or twig to hold the meat above the fire.'

Near had a few over from when he was building the fire and gave her three. He and Near watched slightly curiously how she impaled the pieces meat with them and held them above the fire. Matt turned his head away and tried not to look.

'Come over here and sit!' She nodded with her head next to her as both her hands were holding the sticks with meat.

Mello didn't hesitate and moved to sit close to the warm fire. The sun was down now and the temperature began to go down too. Matt on the other hand shuffled slowly to the fire before sitting down. Head still turned away.

Alexis saw how Matt reacted and snickered. 'Matt, don't be such a pussy and grow some balls.'

The redhead muttered something under his breath and said nothing more.

She laughed quietly and reached out one stick to Mello and one for Near. They both took it. They hadn't need to question her, because the answer came right after.

'You can hold your own portion. It's not needed for me to cook for the both of you when all you have to do is holding it above the fire.'

No one else said something after that and just stared into the fire, watching the meat cook. Mello craved for some chocolate, but he couldn't eat some. He already ate all so now he had to deal with it and ignore the craving.

 _Hmm… maybe that's why I got so angry so quickly all of the sudden earlier. Well… nothing to do about it…_

Alexis pulled her meat away from the fire and checked it. 'I think it's fine to eat now,' she stated.

Mello and Near did the same and checked the meat. It looked well cooked. Any longer above the fire and it could burn.

He brought the stick to his mouth and carefully took a bite from the piece of meat.

'Hmm, not bad.'

Alexis grinned. 'Thank you!'

Near decided to take a bite too after Mello and nodded approvingly.

Matt sat still with his head turned to the side, but Mello could see his friend got hungry from the scent of cooked meat. He wanted to offer him a piece of his, but Alexis beat him to it.

She slid one meat piece of her own stick and reached it out to Matt. 'Take it. I can see you want it.'

Matt watched it as she practically pushed it into his face, but he didn't take it. 'No… thanks.'

She growled frustrated. 'Just take it! It's already dead. If you were a vegan you would already told me so. Don't be so difficult!'

'Yeah, Matt,' he honed. 'Don't be so difficult and be nice. She caught this all by herself for us.'

Matt shot him a glare when he heard the same words he had said before to the blond.

'Fine…' he muttered eventually and took the meat.

Alexis smiled happily and began eating herself. For Mello it was a long time since he had something warm to eat so he ate it with taste. And after the meat was gone they still had enough chickweed and strawberries to fill the rest of their stomach.

/\/\/\/\

'Matt,' he whispered. 'Wake up.' He had to poke the redhead to make him open his eyes.

Matt opened his eyes sleepily. 'Hm? Oh, is it my turn already?'

Mello nodded. 'It's your turn to keep watch. I'm going to catch some sleep now.'

It was a few hours since they ate together and he had taken the first watch. But now he felt he couldn't keep his eyes open for any longer. Luckily it was Matt's turn now.

Matt crawled out of the sleeping bag without waking Near. He and Near had shared one so Alexis could take one for herself. Near was too shy to sleep with her in one sleeping bag and Matt had wanted to give her some space for her own. He could be a gentleman now and then.

Matt stood up and stretched his arms above his head to wake him up more. 'Alright, sleep well, Mels.'

Mello was happy to hear he could sleep and was just about to crawl into the sleeping bag when he noticed something. The only places where he could sleep was if he shared a sleeping bag with either Near or Alexis.

 _You've got to be kidding me…_

His friend saw his inner struggle and snickered. 'It wouldn't be nice to share one with Alexis without asking her first and she's sound asleep so no time to ask her right now.'

Mello glared at the amused redhead. 'You planned this all along, didn't you?'

Matt shrugged. 'Nah, I didn't. But it was bound to happen sooner or later with another team lid.' He smirked. 'Sweet dreams.' And he walked away to sit closer by the fire.

Mello looked down and saw the white ball of fluff still fast asleep. He sighed and decided that there was nothing to do against it if he wanted some sleep. So slid carefully in the sleeping bag next to Near, not daring to wake the boy up. He had no energy to talk to him right now.

 _Oh well… could've been more terrible. At least he doesn't move much in his sleep._

Something in the universe must hate him, because the white haired boy began to move directly after he thought it. Mello thought he would just turn around in his sleep before laying still again, but no. Near turned around and actually _cuddled_ in his side and made himself comfortable clinging onto him.  
He let out a frustrated growl when he noticed there was no way he could move away from Near or shove him away without waking him up.

He heard someone close smothering a laugh and his eyes found Matt sitting by the fire with a hand pushed against his mouth. It was clear he tried not to laugh out loud at the sight of Mello situation.

… _Yes, something in the universe must hate me._


	13. Chapter 13: Water party with bugs

**Wow! I believe this is the biggest chapter of Plane Crash I've written so far! I'm very happy about it :D**

 **Many thanks to _VampireDoll666_ for the idea of the bugs and to _bookgirl98_ for the idea of how I should seperate them.**

* * *

 **Chapter 13: Water party with bugs**

As cold as the nights are, so warm are the days. The sun stood high at the sky and there was no cloud to be seen. For someone like Near it was hell. He always stayed inside, playing with his toys on his own while the others kids played outside in the summer and winter. Because of this he was not used to extreme heat and extreme cold. And that was not the only problem… he had a very fair pale skin. Too long in the sun and he his skin turned red and very painful.

 _Luckily there are so many trees here that the sun can't come through everywhere._

They walked for hours already and it had to be around noon right now. The sun stood high and sent his scorching sun beams down. They were quick thirsty and their water was beginning to run out. But knowing this was Alaska it wouldn't take long for them to come across a creek running through the woods or maybe even a river or a lake.

'Pity that cuddling only gives warmth and not coolness. Otherwise you could cuddle with Near again,' Alexis joked.

 _Since she found us cuddled together in the morning she doesn't stop teasing Mello. I have to say I was surprised too… I don't mind sharing a sleeping bag with_ _Mello, but it's still a surprise he didn't pushed me away when I moved too close to him._

Mello shot her one of his deathly glares. 'Shut up!'

She only giggled at him. 'You know you liked it.'

'I did not!'

Alexis raised an eyebrow. 'Oh really? Then why didn't you push him away when he started cuddling?'

 _Mello had already mentioned to everyone that I was the one who started it and not him. Though it doesn't matter for Alexis. I have to say it's pretty entertaining seeing them bicker. There's not much to do anyway._

'I was tired and didn't want to wake him because-'

'Ahww!' Alexis interrupted his explanation. 'So you do care for him! You didn't want to wake him so he could sleep peacefully!'

Mello turned a shade red. 'NO! Just shut your mouth and listen woman! I wanted to say that I didn't want to wake him because I was too tired to talk or explain myself!'

'Well yeah I'm a woman, I know that. Though I'm still not sure about you…'

'ARE YOU CALLING ME A GIRL?!'

Just when Mello was about to attack her, Matt stopped him by saying: 'Do you hear that?'

Mello blinked confused. 'What? What should I hear? Are you trying to distract me or something?'

'No, I'm not! Just listen.'

They went silent and tried to listen to what Matt heard. Near listened carefully to the sounds of his surroundings. A small breeze of wind sounded through the trees high above them… and… was that splattering water?

'I hear water close by,' Near said.

Mello's eyes widened. 'You're right! I hear it too!'

Alexis gave a short laugh. 'Then why are we standing here? Let's go and look!'

She took a sprint in the direction of the water and Mello and Matt followed after her. Near saw no use in running so he walked calmly after them. If there was really water around it wouldn't just disappear all of the sudden. No need to hurry.

When he had almost caught up with the rest he could hear Alexis squeal of joy.

'It's so beautiful!'

Near finally saw the source of the sound of splattering water and stared in awe at the waterfall before him. A not very large river went down the small waterfall. The water that went down ended up in a small lake about seven by seven meters where a small stream lead the water away again into the forest beneath them.

Near blinked when he noticed Alexis wasn't standing with them anymore and he turned his head to look for her. He found her by the edge next to the waterfall looking down.

'Hey! I think we can climb down here easily!' she said and started her climb down.

Mello and Matt gave each other one look and went after her down to the lake. Near went to the edge as well, but didn't start to climb yet. He noticed there where stones that stuck out and ledges that you could use to go down. Alexis was indeed right about it being easy. Even for Near it looked easier to climb. Much better than the small abyss from before.

He sighed and started his way down to go after the others. He was much slower, but he made it eventually.

'Uhm, w-what are you doing?' Matt slightly stuttered.

Near turned around when his feet touched the ground and couldn't help the light blush creeping on his cheeks. Even Mello was looking with wide eyes.

Alexis had kicked her boots away and had slid her sleeveless jacket off.

 _She's going to swim in the lake obviously._

'Look how clear the water is! It's shining in the sun! I'm going to dive in of course!' Then she pulled her shirt over her head and pulled her jeans down.

Matt's face was almost the same color as his hair by now.

'Do you have to strip right in front of us? You're practically standing in your underwear!' Mello said annoyed. Though Near could see he was faking it.

Alexis turned to look at them, oblivious to what for effect she had standing there in only a black bra and matching panties. Near was almost sure Matt would die from an enormous nosebleed any moment now.

She chuckled when she saw their flushed faces. 'I don't have my swimwear here so deal with it! I'm going to swim in this, it's not like underwear is much different from a bikini anyway.'

 _I take it back. She's not oblivious, but just doesn't care._

She turned her back to them and rushed to the cool looking water. With one jump she splashed in the lake.

'SO COLD!' she shrieked.

'That's logical. The water doesn't have enough time to warm up in the sun before it cools down at night again,' Near commented.

'I don't care! It feels amazing after walking in such warm weather!' She began to swim farther from the edge and waved at the boys. 'Don't just stand there and jump in!' She gave Matt a look. 'Looks like you could need something to cool down.'

She laughed when he only blushed more.

Mello nudged his friend. 'I don't know about you, but I'm going for a swim. Any longer in this heat and I'm going to melt.'

The blond began to pull off his clothes and shoes and midway Matt finally started moving again and did what Mello did. One jump later they let out a scream when the freezing water touched them.

Alexis turned to him. 'Are you coming too, Near? Or can't you swim?'

'I can swim,' he replied. 'I'm just not sure if it's safe…'

Mello snorted. 'Quit making things up. We're in the water in still alive so there's nothing wrong with it.'

'It's too deep for us to stand here, so it'll defiantly be too deep for you to be able to touch the bottom of the lake, but you can swim so it's not a problem,' Matt reasoned.

He stood hesitant besides the lake and stared at it. Calculating if he would join them or not. _I'm not sure if I-_

Suddenly something grabbed his ankles. His eyes went down in shock and saw Mello holding a tight grip on him so he couldn't move away.  
The blond had raised himself half out of the lake so he could get by Near. A devilish grin appeared on his face. Before he knew it Matt had gotten out of the water and was trying to pull his shirt over his head.

'Stop that!' he protested and he tried to keep Matt away with his arms.

Matt laughed. 'Nope, not gonna happen.'

The moment that the redhead had removed all his clothes, except his boxer shorts like Mello and Matt now only had on, he was pushed into the lake. With a large splash he landed in the water, but managed to keep his head up. He gasped when he felt the cold water.

Mello and Matt looked very smug and Near glared at them. 'Are you now happy?'

'Yay!' Alexis said happily. 'Now we're all here!'

Near sighed, but he didn't really mind swimming. It was very refreshing after hours of walking in the warmth of the midday.

/\/\/\/\

Eventually they had gone swimming for a few hours and even dived off the small waterfall. Mello had checked beforehand if the water would be deep enough and it was. So not very much longer Mello, Alexis and Matt climbed up again and jumped down one by one.  
Near watched them for a few times before considering going himself. He raised himself out of the water and slowly climbed up. When he stood at the top of the waterfall he saw the others beneath him. Only then they noticed he was not with them in the lake anymore. Alexis squealed of excitement. He didn't dare to look down any longer and made the jump.  
When he landed in the lake and had his head above the water again he heard Alexis and Matt clapping and cheering. Mello look at him in astonishment and had said: 'You actually jumped.' As if he couldn't believe it. Near couldn't blame Mello for saying that. He himself was surprised too that he dared to do it.

After some time they were beginning to feel tired and decided to eat some of the leftover strawberries and chickweed they had as a late lunch. Because the water of the lake looked clear and good enough to drink they had filled their bottles with the fresh water.

Now they were sitting together close to the lake dressed once again, chatting and laughing together. Mello seemed to go along with Alexis more than before and continued their playful bickering. Near had mainly stayed silent and listened, now and then throwing something in the conversation. He wasn't used to socializing so much.

But then when everything seemed to be amazing, it just had to go wrong again.

Alexis let out a scream and slapped her arm.

'What's wrong?' Mello asked her. Startled by her scream.

Her eyes were full of fright. 'I just got bit by something. It felt like a bee sting or something like that.'

'What?!' Matt said. 'A bee sting?'

She nodded. 'Yeah, it hurt like a bitch.' She looked at her arm. 'It feels kinda tingly now…'

Mello stood up from the ground and took her arm to examine it, but before he even touched her arm he let out a shocked scream himself and smacked his hand against his neck. 'For fucks sake, that really hurts!'

'I told you!'

'Guys…' Matt said scared and he pointed somewhere behind Alexis and Mello. 'I think those two that stung you have friends.'

Near watched where Matt had pointed and his eyes widened in fear. Not far away was a swarm of flying insects and they were coming their way as if they were the swarm's new meal.

Mello opened his mouth. 'RUN!' he yelled.

They grabbed their backpacks and rushed away from the swarm that was still coming closer and closer every second.

'What the hell are these bugs?' Matt screamed terrified.

'I don't know, but I'm not gonna wait for them to find out!' Mello said.

The swarm of unknown bugs stayed just behind them, but there were a few that flew in front of the swarm and reached the four. Near felt a painful stung on his arm, but kept running. He knew the others got stung as well as he heard them scream in terror now and then.

 _We have to run somewhere safe! Where can we go?! We had to jump into the water, but now we can't anymore! So stupid!_

In panic they kept running but didn't notice they went each another way after some time. Alexis could see Matt's red hair clearly in her panicky state and followed him. Although she didn't lose him she got behind and more bugs got to her. Mello had the misfortune to trip over a thick root of a tree and landed flat on the ground. This caused him to get stung by way more bugs. In pain and panic he got up and resumed his running. The bright white hair he recognized in the distance got him running in that way. Not knowing he was only following Near now.

They did not notice the group fell apart.

* * *

 **Review? :)**


	14. Chapter 14: Poisonous

**Chapter 14: Poisonous**

Near gasped for more air while he kept running, but didn't dare to look behind him to make sure if the swarm was following him. He could trip and he had no idea if the bugs bites were deathly. He didn't plan on finding out.

'N…Near!' It sounded like Mello had to force the words out through his wheezing. 'W…wait p…please!'

He stopped instantly and turned around just in time to see Mello falling down to his knees on the ground. His breathing was uneven and he was almost as pale as himself.

'Mello!' he exclaimed shocked and rushed to the blonde's side. 'Are you alright?'

 _Stupid! Of course he isn't alright! Can't you see that already?!_

'Wah… what do you think?' Mello managed to say.

Mello gasped loudly and toppled over when his knees couldn't hold him anymore. Near reached out his arms just in time to catch the blond who was clearly in agony.

Near began to lose his cool and panicked. _What do I do?! The bugs stung me too, but all I feel is a slight headache and I'm a bit tired… what not weird is after so much running when you're not used to it._

He took a deep breath to keep himself calm for Mello. He needed him now more than ever. Near quickly examined Mello's bare skin on his neck and arms. The spots where he was stung had formed red blotches. He had them too, but far less.

 _Mello got stung more by those insects so he feels the effect of the venom more than I do._

He noticed Mello was still conscious and patted gently his cheek to get his attention. 'Mello, can you tell me where it hurts?'

'My b-body feels like i-it's on fire,' he whispered weakly. 'Breathing is… difficult. My head f-feels like it's going to explode a-and I can't find any energy to move.'

Near frowned when he thought this new information over. He had a slight headache… maybe he had the same symptoms as Mello, but much and much lesser.

 _None of us have medicine that could help. The only thing we can do is wait and hope it'll go away by itself._

That moment he finally noticed the others weren't with them anymore. It was only him and Mello. Matt and Alexis seemed to be gone, probably ran another way to escape the swarm of bugs and split from the group.

Mello's eyes closed slowly and Near panicked again. 'Mello, don't lose your conscious.'

The blond growled lowly. 'But I'm _exhausted_. I need to sleep. _Now_.'

Despite saying he really needed to sleep he managed to keep his eyes half open, but only just. Near knew he couldn't keep Mello awake for long and looked around for a good place to stay. There was no way they could go any further now with Mello's condition like this.

 _Maybe sleep will help him to heal faster._

Mello was too big for Near to carry so he threw one arm over his shoulders and half carried half dragged the hurt blond with him. Mello whimpered softly, but didn't say anything more.

'Almost there,' Near mumbled reassuringly.

A few meters further away there was a large tree where Near placed Mello against the broad tree trunk. He took the blonde's backpack and got the sleeping bag that was bound on top. After quickly getting it off the backpack he zipped the thing open and tried to get Mello in the soft sleeping bag. It wasn't easy because Mello couldn't move, but he managed it.

After Mello lay safely tucked in the sleeping bag in front of the tree trunk he patted his cheek again to gain some of his attention.

'You can sleep now, Mello. I'll keep watch.'

Mello sighed deeply and closed his eyes fully. He was immediately out.

Near took a deep breath and sunk down on the ground next to the sleeping blond. He leaned with his back against the tree resting a bit before getting into action again. He had to start a fire soon if they were going to stay here. It wouldn't get dark for a few more hours, but fire scared most animals away and kept them at distance.

He glanced at Mello. _I can keep watch, but I'm not sure if I'm capable of caring and protecting you on my own._

* * *

Matt had no idea what had happened. One moment they were sitting by the lake, having a good time for once, and the next moment they were on the run for a swarm of biting insects. As if that wasn't bad enough he had lost sight of Mello and Near too.

He looked down at Alexis who had passed out in his arms. He heard her calling for help and got to her on time before she hit the ground. The bare skin that was exposed had red blotches all over, much worse than his. It didn't take long for him to figure out that the bug bites were poisonous.

Luckily for them they had the second sleeping bag so Matt could carry Alexis over to a good spot to camp and get her in the sleeping bag. The only thing what would be going to be difficult was making a fire. Near had the only lighter they possessed and he was stuck with a box of matches.

 _Could be worse. Like having no way of making a fire at all._

He knew there was a way to make fire with the sun or with a wooden stick and some friction, but he never learned that shit. If there was one time he regretted playing games all the time and not learning something useful like making a fire it was now.

He stood up and began to gather some wood. He stayed close to where Alexis lay so he could watch her. Who knew what for animals there were around. The girl was fast asleep and Matt knew it would take a while before she woke up. He had no medicine with him to help her so she had to fight the poison in her body on her own.

 _Hopefully she's feeling better when she wakes._


	15. Chapter 15: Caring

**I don't know what you guys think, but I like this moment between Mello and Near :)**

 **Review?**

* * *

 **Chapter 15: Caring**

The dark and dreamless world began to disappear slowly but surely when Mello woke up. His head still hurt like hell so he kept his eyes closed. He still felt tired, but not as much as before. His mind was awake at least, despite his body. It felt like somebody numbed his muscles. His limbs felt like they were filled with lead.

His stomach growled to let him know it wanted food. _What was the last time I've eaten?_ He moaned miserably.

'Mello? Are you awake?'

Mello cracked an eye open so he wouldn't be blinded by the daylight. It was obvious to him that he had been out for at least the whole night. 'Near?'

The pale white haired boy came into his vision and crouched down next to him. Though his face was that emotionless mask that he always wore, Mello could see through the small cracks in his mask. He looked… concerned.

 _What happened again? Oh! Right! The swarm of bugs that stung me and most likely poisoned me. But why is that sheep so concerned?_

'Are you feeling better?' Near asked worried.

Mello shook his head a little. 'My head hurts and I can hardly move. It's like my body is filled with lead or something.' He thought about one thing that was positive. 'But I'm feeling less tired I guess.'

Near sighed with relief. 'I'm glad to hear that. I notice you have no trouble speaking too, but that was probably because of the exhaustion.'

 _Wait… is he really so concerned about me?_

'Are you hungry?' Near asked. 'It's already past noon. You slept through the whole night and morning.'

Mello replied with a simple nod and Near began to rummage through one of the backpacks. Mello frowned as he thought about Near's behavior. He seemed honesty concerned about his wellbeing, but why would he do that? It's not like he's been very nice. Not at all!

 _Okay, I did save him from the plane crash, but not doing that and leaving him there would've been just plain cruel. Almost as if I caused his death like a murderer. And that time that I carried him through the forest was because I felt guilty… I told them to lay down and play dead after all when facing the grizzly bear._

'Mello,' Near interrupted his thoughts. 'I need you to sit up more. It's not very healthy to eat and drink while laying flat. Are you able to do that?'

'I don't know.'

Mello tried to move his fingers and they listened to his commands like they were supposed to. Then he tried to raise his arm and noticed that was way harder. His arm felt heavy and tired. He could raise it a little bit of the ground, but not very much longer it fell back down again.

'Do you want me to help you?' Near suggested carefully.

He was tended to say no, but knowing he wouldn't come nowhere without some help he nodded hesitatingly. 'Yeah.'

Near reached his arms out to grab Mello by his shoulders. He held him and slowly dragged backwards so he was now leaning against the trunk of the tree.

 _This feels so awkward…_

Now he managed to sit against the tree, Near grabbed the plastic container with left over strawberries. To Mello's surprise he took one strawberry and held it before his mouth.

 _Is he going to feed me?!_

He opened his mouth to protest, but Near had already predicted what he was going to say. 'You can barely raise your arm, Mello. It's seems unlikely you can eat yourself so don't whine about it. I'm only trying to help.'

'Can't Matt do it then?' He looked around to search for his friend. 'Where is he anyways?'

Near lowered his head in sorrow and Mello knew there was something wrong. 'What happened?'

'… I don't know where Matt or Alexis are. We lost them when we fled for the bugs.'

'WHAT?!'

 _Our group got split?! We're not together anymore while we're still in these woods with the wild animals and shit?!'_

Mello's eyes widened in panic. 'We have to find them _now_!' He tried to stand up, but he couldn't even raise his arm for long so he failed.

Near pushed him back and held him against the tree so he couldn't try to stand again. 'Mello, think about this rationally. You're not barely able to sit up let alone stand up and walk. First you need to rest and get the poison out of your system and then we'll look for Matt and Alexis.'

'But-'

'No buts. The more you rest the faster we can search for them so don't be so difficult while you have no other choice. You probably hate it that you're stuck with me, but it is what it is.' Mello wanted to react, but before he could say something Near shoved the strawberry he still held into his mouth. 'Eat. Your body will need the energy.'

Mello went silent after that and allowed Near to feed him. He had no idea what to say anymore.

 _This is the first time he actually stood up to me. Near has never reacted like this no matter what I did or said. I've harassed him since he came to Wammy House and beat my spot at first place for being L's successor. I call him names, I've punched him multiple times and once he even got a bloody nose! Why is he so_ nice _to me?!_

…

 _How can I hate him when he's being so kind?_

Mello swallowed the last strawberry the container had. Near wanted to get up, but he stopped abruptly when Mello's next words reached him.

'Why are you suddenly so nice to me? Why do you care?' Mello asked frustrated. 'I don't understand…'

Near stared silently at the ground and just when Mello thought there wasn't going to be an answer to his questions, he spoke softly. 'Because I don't hate you like you hate me. It's not suddenly… I just never got really a chance to show I care. Mello's always strong and doesn't need help from no one.'

Mello was perplexed. 'How on earth can you not hate me after all those years?'

Near shrugged. 'It's because I know you're only pissed at me for taking in your first place. I can't do as if I'm less smarter than I am so I just do my thing. Solving puzzles.'

Mello blinked, still in utter confusion. Near twirled his finger in his snow white hair as he often did.

'The only thing I'm good at is solving puzzles, like solving cases. I honestly don't see me living in the normal society. I'm weak, I'm small and the only thing I have is a genius mind. Being the next L is all I can imagine what I'm capable of in the future.  
I'm not really made for the society, but you are. As I said before, Mello is strong and doesn't need help from no one. You're not weak and can fight back if needed. You have more options in life than me. You can go out in the world on your own and do things I'll never can.'

He turned his gaze to Mello and looked right in the blonde's wide blue eyes.

'I admire you for that.'

At this point Mello's mouth fell open from astonishment. 'You actually… _admire_ me?'

Near nodded. 'Yes.'

 _Now I feel bad about all the things I did…_

He lowered his head. 'I'm sorry…' he mumbled. 'I've never saw it that way.' He paused. 'But you're not as weak as you think. There's nothing wrong with having a mind like you have. You solve things faster than I'll ever can and see things I don't see.'

'Thank you… it feels very good to hear that.'

Mello heard him speak in a tone he didn't recognize and looked up, only to see Near was smiling. Near was _actually_ smiling happily. He allowed his mask to fall to let Mello see what was behind it.

 _And I'll make sure I keep it that way._


	16. Chapter 16: Secrets

**Chapter 16: Secrets**

Matt didn't really know what to say to her. Alexis had woken up and he was very happy she seemed alright. At least not dying. She could barely move, but she could hold things like something to eat and bring it to her mouth. With difficulty, but it's something. Though she seemed very down the moment she had opened her eyes.

'Uhm…' he hesitated. Not knowing if he should ask. 'Are you… okay?'

Alexis turned her gaze to the redhead next to her and raised an eyebrow. 'Do I look okay to you? I feel like I'm handicapped!'

Matt scratched the back of his head nervously. 'Well yeah… I can see that. But I mean that you look pretty… down. Is something bothering you?'

'It's nothing important.'

He chuckled. 'You know, Mello always said that too when he looked troubled. He would say it was nothing and tried to avoid it, but eventually talking helped solving his troubles.' He smiled to himself. 'But he stays stubborn even after all those years since we met.'

Alexis watched him with interest. 'You sound like you know him almost your whole life.'

Matt nodded slowly. _I guess I'll have to talk first to get her talking. It wouldn't hurt much…_

'I met him when we were eight years old. Back then he was one blond ball of fury.'

Alexis giggled. 'I think he still is, right?'

Matt grinned. 'Yeah, but he's better at keeping it in and not destroying everything on his path. Actually he stormed into the room I was in on my first day and I think he was trying to scare me or tried to show me who was boss or something. When I didn't paid attention to him and kept on playing my videogame he demanded to look him in the eye when he talked to me. I still ignored him and that got him pretty mad so he pushed me off the couch I was on and made me lose my game. He laughed at me and I punched him so hard he lost his balance and crashed on the floor.'

Matt smiled. 'And that's how our friendship began.'

Alexis blinked. 'Wait what? He was mean to you, you punched him and then you were friends?'

He looked amused at her confused expression and nodded. 'Yep.'

She sighed. 'I don't know if it's because you're boys or just crazy, but that's just weird.'

Matt laughed at her reaction. 'Maybe a little bit of both.'

They were silent for a while, enjoying the comfortable mood when Alexis suddenly frowned.

'But… you said it was on your first day. Your first day where?'

'I meant my first day at the orphanage where I still live until today. Mello was there already for about three years. Near came much later when we were about twelve I think,' Matt explained casually.

Her eyes widened. 'What?! You three live in an orphanage?'

Matt simply nodded. 'Yeah, we do.'

'Oh…' Alexis seemed to think for a moment before she spoke again. 'Well, better no parents than bad parents if you ask me.'

Matt turned to look at her in surprise at her statement. 'Why would you think that?'

She shrugged. 'I got bad parents and I just don't miss them. I have no regret leaving them behind.'

'You left your parents? So you mean you ran away from home.'

'Yes. Yes, I did.'

 _That explains why she doesn't want to talk about her past. She probably afraid she'll have to go back to them._

'Could you tell me why they were bad?'

Alexis looked doubtful. 'I don't know…'

'Please.' He glanced at her with his special puppy eyes. 'I promise I will keep your secret and won't tell anyone.'

Alexis looked him in the eye and tried to search for a lie, but there was nothing but honesty in them. She sighted. 'Alright then... it only seems fair anyway considering you already told me something about you.'

'As long as I remember, starting when I was a small child, I noticed that my parents didn't listen to me. They wouldn't help me or answer my questions or give me attention at all. The attention I did receive was nothing more than words like _"Why do we even give you food to live? You do nothing for us."_ so instead I tried to avoid them as much as possible.'

'How on earth can you say such things to just a little child who has done nothing wrong?' Matt said incredulously.

Alexis nodded. 'I know it's not normal, but I got used to it. Though it got worse when I was older…'

'When I was about twelve years old my dad lost his job and he didn't succeed in finding another one very quickly. So he grew even more grumpier and started to drink a lot. Leaving him almost every day drunk. My mom kept her job, but had to work more and harder to get enough money for us to live from. She got angry at me for doing nothing to help them, although I already helped with keeping the house clean, doing the laundry and often even the cooking.  
This went on for some time and nothing changed until my mom began to hit me where it would hurt every time she was stressed. As if that wasn't bad enough my dad became very… touchy. When he was very drunk and I had bad luck to be in his sight at that moment he would try to… well you can guess. Do things fathers are not supposed to do to their daughters.'

Matt gasped in shock. 'Did he…?'

Alexis shook her head quickly. 'No! Thank god no! He never came that far… I always managed to escape on time. I quickly learned to see when he was in such a mood and tried to avoid him on all costs then.'

Matt sighed relieved. 'And the years until now? You got enough money to buy a plane ticket eventually.'

'Yeah, that was the plan I thought of the moment I was twelve. I every opportunity I could to get a little bit of money such as selling flowers I plucked, getting small jobs in stores or helping people with their heavy shopping bags. Not everyone would give me some the effort, but some were kind enough to do it. For the jobs I often had to lie about my age, but it worked more than often. Eventually I had enough for a plane ticket to the US. I never learned another language than English so I wanted to go somewhere where I could understand the people.'

'That's a smart move to do. Otherwise you would been thrown in the unknown and not even understand what was being said,' he praised her.

With some difficulty she managed to hug her legs. 'Thank you for get me to talk,' she said softly. 'When I was asleep because of the poison I had nightmares of my time back home. But I feel better now.'

Matt smiled brightly. 'You're welcome!'

Alexis gave him a small smile back. 'Are you still gonna keep your promise and not tell anyone about what I just told you?'

'Of course! But…'

Matt thought about what she just told him and knew she couldn't return to her old home ever again. She looked smart and strong enough to survive on her own, but it didn't feel good to let her go after they met in the forest. Alexis wasn't that long with them, but it felt like she belonged with their group.

 _It's clear she's intelligent… she knew to stay calm when the plane crashed and acted fast after she saw us escaping the crash. Alexis could be Wammy House material._

'… But what if I told you I know a place where you could stay? A place where you could stay with me, Mello and Near?'

Her eyes widened. 'Really? You think I could go with you three back to your orphanage? That would be awesome!'

Matt nodded. 'I think you'll fit in there perfectly. But you'll have to pass a test first before you can enter there…'

Alexis frowned confused. 'A test?'

 _Should I tell her about L?_

… _._

 _Oh the hell with it. My gut tells me she'll pass the test anyway._

He took a deep breath and began. 'Have you ever heard about the detective called L?'


	17. Chapter 17: Finally found

**Chapter 17: Finally found**

'I still can't believe that you three are L's, the greatest detective of the world, successors!'

Matt had told Alexis everything about Wammy House. That it was an orphanage for talented and gifted children and that they trained L's current successors. He didn't regret telling her. She looked so happy now.

 _If telling about Wammy's and L is wrong to do despite that it would make her happy than I don't care if it's wrong._

'Now I know why Mello seems to hate Near. He wants to be L's first successor, but Near beat him to it every time.'

Matt chuckled. 'Yeah, don't say that in his face though. I rather not see the disastrous consequences of that.

Alexis looked at Matt. 'Maybe if we stuff some chocolate in his mouth and run like hell we'll survive,' she said seriously.

They gave each other a look and burst out laughing.

'Nah, let's not risk it. I kinda want to live after we get out of this forest.'

Alexis nodded. 'True. But I really hope it won't be long before we get rescued or we find a way out ourselves.'

They were finally moving again. It took about four days for Alexis to heal enough for them to get going. Matt had looked for food and kept the fire going in the meantime. Despite having enough to do to keep his mind busy, his thoughts always made place for worry about Mello and Near. He wasn't sure what would happen if they were alone for so long and he didn't even know if they were okay and not badly poisoned too.

 _They'll survive. I just got to believe they will. I just hope one of them is feeling well enough to move. If they are both like Alexis was…_

Matt shook his head to shake the bad thoughts away from his head. It wasn't good to start to think like that. It would do no good.

Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned his head to see it was Alexis.

'Hey, are you okay?' Alexis watched him with concern in her eyes.

He gave her a small smile. 'I'm fine. Just… worried about how the others are doing.'

Alexis smiled back. 'Don't worry. We are finally back on track and I'm sure we'll find them soon!'

'…Thanks.'

'No problem!' she said. 'Think only happy thoughts. The others are all forbidden!'

He gave a short laugh. 'I'll try.'

They walked together in silence for a while, lost in their own thoughts. Matt tried to not wander to his concerns about his friends, but it was harder than said.

Alexis seemed to notice this because she very excited: 'Look! That plant has enormous strawberries!' And she rushed to the so said plant.

Matt followed her with a smile pulling his lips up. He knew she tried to distract him.

Alexis held out a large strawberry. 'Look at it!'

He chuckled. 'Yes, I see it. You don't have to hold it so closely to my face for me to see-'

Alexis suddenly shoved the strawberry into his mouth while he was talking and surprised him entirely. He blinked and Alexis laughed at the baffled expression on his face.

'You're face! It looks so funny!'

Matt quickly chewed and swallowed the strawberry and plucked another one from the plant. Before Alexis had recovered from her laughing fit he shoved it in her mouth. Now she was the one looked completely baffled and it made Matt laugh.

'You're right! It looks hilarious!'

When she could was able to speak again she grinned. 'Alright, I had to see that one coming.'

Matt wanted to say something in reply, but his words were interrupted when there sounded footsteps close by.

They watched each other with wide eyes. 'Could that be Mello and Near?' Alexis whispered hopeful.

Matt shot from his spot and ran to where the footsteps sounded, too impatient to wait any longer.

 _Are they safe? Did we found each other already? That would be amazing! Besides who else could walk here in the middle of nowhere?_

'Mello! Near! You are sa-'

Matt stopped abruptly and stood frozen on his spot. The footsteps they heard were not from Mello or Near. Before him were two guys he had never seen in his life. They were maybe somewhere in their thirties. Although he had no idea who they were, the two men looked like they knew him.

One of the guys with dirty blond hair and a beard sighed with relief and exclaimed. 'We finally found you!'

His colleague with friendly brown eyes smiled. 'We're part of a rescue team that has the task to find three boys, one blond, one redhead and one with white hair. Some detective commanded the search as he thoughts there were bodies missing in the plane wreck.'

Matt gasped. 'You mean we're finally saved?!'

The men nodded and Matt jumped the guy who stood closest and gave him a tight hug while chanting: 'Thank you thank you thank you!'

The dirty blond that was hugged by Matt laughed. 'You're welcome, kid. Just doing my job.'

'Uhm… Matt? Who are these men?'

He released the rescue guy and turned around to see a very confused Alexis. She had finally caught up with him and seemed not to know what to think of the two guys.

He rushed to her side and threw his arms around her to hug her too. 'We're saved, Alexis! These men are sent to find us! We're going away from this forest!'

Matt let her go so he could see her face and he saw pure happiness appear in her eyes.

'Really?' Matt nodded and Alexis threw her hands in the air. 'YES!'

'Hey kid, uhmm Matt it is, right?' the one with the brown eyes said. 'We only thought we were looking for three boys, but there's a girl too?'

'I'm Alexis,' she spoke for herself. 'I saw how they escaped from the crashing plane and I went after them.'

'Ah, that's how it is. Well, I'm happy you managed to escape in time!'

His colleague nudged him. 'You forget we only found one of the boys and a girl as surprise.' He turned to Matt and Alexis. 'But where are the other two?'

'You haven't found them yet?' Matt asked.

The guy shook his head sadly. 'I'm afraid not.'

Matt lowered his head and stared at the ground. Many possible scenarios of what could happened with his friends went through his head. Alexis put her hand on his shoulder to comfort him. In the meantime she quickly explained what happened to the rescue workers and that they lost each other while they had to flee from a swarm of dangerous insects.

The dirty blond nodded understandingly. 'Don't worry, Matt. That we haven't found them yet doesn't say they're not found. We are just two of the twenty that were sent here to look for you.'

Matt raised his head. 'So you're saying they could've been found by other rescue workers?'

The man smiled. 'Exactly.'

The one with brown eyes gestured in the direction they came from. 'Let's go back to the helicopter. Maybe you'll see your friends there. If not we'll keep looking until they're found and safely home.'

/\/\/\/\

It seemed like Matt and Alexis were only a few kilometers away from the place where the plane had crashed. The crash destroyed a lot of trees and this made enough space for a helicopter to land.

'We found the redhead and another girl!' Brown Eyes yelled at the few colleagues by the helicopter.

A blond head popped into view as the person looked out of the helicopter. Matt could tell who it was from whatever the distance was.

'MELLO!' he screamed in joy as he ran to his friend that now stepped out of the helicopter.

Without slowing down much he slammed into his friend and held him in a tight hug. 'You're alright!'

Mello patted on his back and managed to choke out: 'Can't… breathe…'

Matt released his grip quickly and Mello took a deep breath. 'Happy to see you too, Mattie.'

'How long ago did you get here?' Matt asked.

Mello shrugged. 'I think about one hour ago.' He smiled and added: 'Good to see you're okay.'

Suddenly a certain white haired boy clambered out the helicopter to see what all the commotion was all about. He blinked when he saw Matt and Alexis, who just caught up with the rest, and a small smile tucked at his lips.

'Matt, Alexis, I'm glad you are okay.'

'Near!' Alexis exclaimed. 'Did everything go well? Did Mello attack you while you were alone with him?'

'Hey!' Mello said indignantly. 'Don't act like as if I'm a wild beast!'

Matt coughed to hide his laugh, but the blond noticed anyway. Before Mello's temper could grow Near stopped him by speaking up again.

'Mello was very nice to me while we had to recover from the poisonous insects. We took the time to work some things out and we're fine now.'

Matt cocked his head to the side. 'Wait… you're saying Mello doesn't hate you anymore?' He looked at his friend who looked slightly flustered and embarrassed. 'What is this? _Magic?!_ '

'Shut up, Matt! I just realized I was being stupid for acting like that only because he's…' he shot a look at Alexis. 'Because he's first.'

Alexis grinned. 'Don't worry, I already know who you really are and what orphanage you guys come from. Matt told me.'

'Matt!' Mello snapped. 'Why you do that?!'

He simply shrugged. 'She's probably coming to Wammy's with us anyway, so why keeping it secret now?'

This caught Near's interest. 'You're coming with us? But don't you have a home elsewhere where someone misses you?'

She sighed. 'Long story.'

Mello huffed. 'Well it's a good thing we've got time since it will take some time to… well… you know who I mean.'

Not long after they were reunited again one of the rescue workers told them to get in the helicopter. They were ready to leave the forest and bring them home.

When they were flying high above the enormous forest they lived in for many days, Matt shot a nervous glance at Alexis. He hoped she was talented enough to get into Wammy House, or otherwise he would've lied to her and she would leave them for good.

 _Here we go, heading to our mentor L!_

* * *

 **Yay! They're saved! :D**

 **The next chapter will be the last one of this story... unless I get more ideas while on my vacation, but I doubt it.  
And yes I'll be going away for two weeks and most of the time I won't have internet (sadly). I hope to update somewhere in those two weeks... and if that fails I'm sorry for the wait for the last chapter... **


	18. Chapter 18: Welcome back

**Yes! I'm back from vacation and have finally written the last chapter of Plane Crash!**

 **Enjoy :D**

* * *

 **Chapter 18: Welcome back**

'Oh god, I'm so nervous,' Alexis said.

Watari smiled kindly at the nervous girl. 'Don't worry, my dear. I'm sure everything will be fine.'

The elevator doors opened and everyone went in. Watari pushed the button that would bring them to the top floor.

After he, Matt, Near and Alexis landed safely somewhere in the US Watari stood waiting for them to bring them to L. The old man had looked very glad to see the whole group being okay and alive. Alexis was a surprise though. She explained what she was doing with us and Watari had complimented her for her quick thinking and staying calm in such terrifying moment.  
The man was slightly shocked to hear that Matt had told her everything about Wammy House and L, but he understood why he did it after he heard Alexis wanted to be transferred into Wammy's. He accepted the idea immediately after hearing about her home situation and bad parents.

The elevator stopped and the doors slid open.

'As long I don't have to go back to my parents, things will be much better indeed,' Alexis said while they walked through the long hallway.

'That's one thing we know for certain,' Matt said. 'You'll never have to go back to them. And it seems weird to me if L doesn't approve of you. You're very smart.'

She smiled. 'Thanks.'

Mello looked from his best friend to Alexis who were still smiling at each other. 'Please go find a room you two,' he grumbled.

They both turned as red as Matt's hair and Matt glared at him with wide eyes. 'Shut up!'

'I just said what I thought.'

'Then stop thinking.'

'How am I supposed to stop thinking? That's impossible, Matt. Every human being thinks.'

Alexis giggled at their conversation.

'Here is the room where L is,' Watari interrupted the two boys.

Mello and Matt shut up immediately when Watari knocked on the door before them.

A deep voice from inside the room answered. 'Come in.'

Watari opened the door and the four entered the room while the old man shut the door behind them.

The hotel room was very spacious and in the middle of it in the living area sat a certain detective crouched on an armchair. A cup of sweetened tea in front of him on the coffee table and a variety of many sweets and cake.

 _Still the same L as the last time we saw him._

L gave them a small smile, but Mello knew that meant he was very happy to see them. He stood up from and put his hands in the pockets of his jeans. 'I can't put to words how glad I am to see you well and alive before me.'

Mello couldn't help himself and he rushed to his idol. Before L could blink he had thrown his arms around the man in a tight hug.

'We're finally back!' he exclaimed.

Matt followed quickly after Mello and threw himself in the hug too, but not before dragging Near along.

Watari chuckled at the sight as L awkwardly returned the hug.

It took L not long when Alexis caught his eye.

'Ah, you must be the girl Watari told me about,' he said.

Alexis eyes widened and the boys let go of L in surprise. 'Watari told you? What did he tell you?'

L took a few steps forward so he faced Alexis now fully. 'Watari has informed me about your home situation and how you came to meet my successors.' He cast a glance at Matt. 'And one certain successor told you about Wammy's and myself.'

Matt scratched his head nervously and tried to look everywhere but his mentor.

'I won't tell anyone about it!' she said hurriedly. 'I promise I'll keep quiet!'

L gave her his special little smile. 'Good. And I believe I heard also something about you wanting to join Wammy's, am I correct?'

She nodded.

'Then that's decided. I already have looked up information about you. School reports and such and I find you very clever. Though you won't be smart enough to get to the scores of Near, Mello and Matt and be part of the successor program.'

Alexis stared up at him with wide hopeful eyes. 'But it means I can live at Wammy House now, right? I don't have to go home?'

Watari put his hand reassuring on her shoulder. 'You can call Wammy House your home from now on.'

She gasped amazed and was at loss for words. 'Really?! Thank you so much!'

L turned back to the three boys. 'Could you all please enlighten me and tell me about what has happened during and after the crash?'

He started immediately how it all began with Matt filling in the parts he didn't know. Near put a word in here and there, but let them to the talking mostly. L stayed silent throughout the story and simply listened. Until Matt just _had_ to tell a certain thing…

'And after we were reunited again by the helicopter Near told us he and Mello talked it out and are fine now! I couldn't believe it 'cause it was so suddenly, but they haven't had any discussion of sorts since then!'

L raised an eyebrow and turned his full attention to Mello and Near. 'Is that so? Why the sudden change? We've tried to get you both get along for a long time, and I mean especially you, Mello.'

'Well,' he said hesitantly. 'I realized that it isn't good to be mean to Near only because he's good in what he does. Solving puzzles, like cases.' He sighed. 'I was stupid to not see that earlier…' he mumbled.

'Mello can do much more things I'll never really learn, like having the strength to survive on my own… I would've never survived in that forest if it was me all alone,' Near said.

'I think Near is a better successor for the role of L than me. I'll find something else to fight for.'

L stared in astonishment at the two boys just like the rest.

Matt's mouth fell open. 'Wait, WHAT?'

Near seemed to hear this for the first time to as he stared just as surprised at the blond.

L blinked. 'Well, that is certainly something I never expected to hear from you, Mello… but I think I have a better idea.'

Mello frowned. 'Such as what?'

'I think you both should be my successor now you seem to get along well. Like a team,' the detective explained. 'What the other comes to short of has the other too much. Together you improve each other's weakest points. Together there's a chance of about 89 percent that you even can succeed me.'

 _That doesn't sound so bad…_

He looked at Near. 'What do you think? Should we work together as a team?'

Near seemed deep in thought before nodding his head. 'Yes, that could work. I think too that we improve each other.'

Mello held out his hand to the white haired boy. 'Then I think we have a deal, partner.'

Near's lips tucked into a grin and shook Mello's hand. 'Indeed, partner.'

Alexis couldn't stop smiling at the two and Watari seemed to even wipe away a tear. L was simply proud what the two had formed a team.

Matt rubbed his eyes. 'I don't think I'm seeing this right. This is too good to be real!'

Alexis laughed at the unbelieving redhead. 'Sometimes reality can have a happy end too!'

Matt shook his head. 'Magic. There's no other explanation.'

Mello glanced at Near and their eyes met, instantly knowing what the other thought.

At the same time they punched Matt on his arm, Mello the left and Near the right.

'Shut up, Matt,' Mello grinned.

* * *

 **Aaaand the end!**

 **Another story is finished... I'm happy to see how this one went :D  
Thank you for following, reviewing and favoriting my story! I'm glad you found my fanfic worthy enough to read :)**


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